Bargaining Committee

Tania Bhattacharyya
History
PhD Candidate
Research and Teaching Assistant

Ian Bradley-Perrin
Sociomedical Sciences
PhD Student
Research and Teaching Assistant

Olga Brudastova is an MS/PhD student in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, who has served as a Fellow, an RA and a TA. Her involvement with the campaign started in Spring 2014, and ever since then she has been an organizer, a spokesperson, and now a member of the Bargaining Committee. She is very proud to represent her colleagues at the bargaining table, especially as an international student and a woman worker in STEM. 

Noura Farra is a fifth-year PhD student in the Computer Science department, where she is a RA and studies language processing. She is an international student and also a member of the GWC-International Student Working Group. She continues to be committed to a strong union contract which recognizes and guarantees our rights as academic workers.

Trevor Hull is a 3rd year graduate worker in the Chemistry department. As a STEM Research assistant he was excited to see the union active in calling for more scientific funding, and imagined how it could improve his health (both mental and physical), and safety in lab. He was first motivated to get involved in the Union after seeing the administrations blatant attempts to prevent graduate workers from gaining more power for themselves, he can’t wait to get a strong first contract for all graduate workers! 

Kate Jackson is a 5th year Ph.D. candidate in the political science department, writing a dissertation on corporate political rights and working as both a research and teaching assistant. She hopes to use her background in corporate and commercial law to frame a powerful contract on behalf of Columbia’s dedicated and valuable student workers.

Rosalie Ray is a second-year PhD student in the Urban Planning program in GSAPP. She has worked as both a TA and RA. She got involved in the union after seeing how little influence graduate workers had on campus compared to her experience as a master’s student and graduate worker at UCLA, home of UAW Local 2865.

Justin Steinfeld is a 5th year MD/PhD candidate in the Integrated Program at Columbia. Due to concerns of health hazards in his workplace, he became involved in GWC last year while trying to convince CUMC to make meaningful renovations to the William Black Building. After learning of countless stories of other unaddressed grievances from graduate students around the University, he realized that only a union contract would create change and became a part of the bargaining committee to address all the concerns of the his colleagues.

Takaya Uchida is a PhD student majoring in Physical Oceanography. He would like to make the Columbia campus a fair and just workplace. By improving our working conditions, he believes it will also make Columbia a more academically competitive and vibrant community by helping bring in more bright-minded academics.

Angela Woodall is a Ph.D. student in the Communications Studies program at Columbia’s School of Journalism. As a graduate worker, educator and journalist, she has been involved in union efforts for a decade as a way to make sure that workers not only have a union to back them but also have a say in decisions that affect their interests.