{"id":1569,"date":"2016-11-28T00:58:51","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T00:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/?page_id=1569"},"modified":"2016-12-30T18:57:47","modified_gmt":"2016-12-30T18:57:47","slug":"vote","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/vote\/","title":{"rendered":"VOTE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vote \u201cyes\u201d for a more democratic and inclusive Columbia!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On December 7 and 8, we have a historic opportunity to establish a democratic voice, build on and secure improvements in our working conditions and create a more inclusive and accessible university by voting \u201cyes\u201d for GWC-UAW as our union.\u00a0 Joining together with 60,000 other academic workers in the UAW has become even more urgent as president-elect Trump has said he wants to restrict opportunities for international graduate students and has attacked science by asserting that climate change is a \u201choax.\u201d<\/p>\n

After nearly three years, including thousands of conversations and numerous town halls among RAs and TAs, we have a clear choice. \u00a0Voting \u201cyes\u201d means Columbia would have a legal obligation to negotiate RA and TA conditions with GWC-UAW and to commit any agreements we reach, regarding improvements or maintaining current benefits, into a binding contract.\u00a0 We would move beyond the current system, where Columbia decides unilaterally whether and how to address problems like late pay, unstable medical and dental benefits, deteriorating lab facilities, or ineffective recourse for sexual harassment, just to name a few examples.<\/p>\n

While RAs and TAs have already identified a long list of issues to address in bargaining, check out these five basic reasons to vote \u201cunion yes\u201d on December 7 and 8<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Our universities do better when we join together<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Joining together in GWC-UAW since 2014 has helped lead Columbia to offer a number of improvements to RA and TA conditions.\u00a0 But Columbia can still do better, and experience at other universities shows that collective bargaining enhances the power and the creativity to win improvements to pay, benefits and rights for all RAs and TAs and especially those who need it the most, like when RAs and TAs negotiated a 38% increase to minimum stipends in the first-ever union contract at NYU.<\/p>\n

Why engineering students are voting yes for our union<\/b><\/a>
\nWe\u2019re Voting for the Union at Columbia University Medical Center<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

See the positive results of collective bargaining for other UAW academic workers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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