{"id":1608,"date":"2016-11-28T18:31:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T18:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/?page_id=1608"},"modified":"2016-11-28T19:07:41","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T19:07:41","slug":"response-to-provost-keep-informed-on-the-unionization-debate","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/response-to-provost-keep-informed-on-the-unionization-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Response to Provost Keep Informed on the Unionization Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
Keep Informed on the Unionization Debate<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
What the Provost says<\/strong><\/td>\n
What the Provost leaves out<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Uninhibited and energetic debate must be based on facts<\/strong>.\u00a0 Here is pertinent information relevant to issues raised subsequent to the NLRB\u2019s August decision on the status of teaching and research assistants.<\/td>\n
Stipend increases are not new.<\/strong>\u00a0 For the past decade, doctoral stipends have been increasing regularly.\u00a0 The reason?\u00a0 The University and its schools are competing for and committed to attracting the very best students in the world. \u00a0It is not accurate to claim that the recent union organizing drive prompted these increases. \u00a0Over the last ten years, the stipends paid by all schools at Columbia have increased, on average, more than 3% annually, and stipends at schools on the Morningside campus will continue to increase at a minimum of 3% annually for the next three academic years.\u00a0 Stipends in the four Medical Center schools will continue to increase at rates determined by each school based on rates set by the NIH guidelines.\u00a0 On September 1, 2016, stipends rose by 3.75% or more at each of Columbia\u2019s Arts & Sciences departments and all of the professional schools located on Morningside.\u00a0 By contrast, NYU\u2019s union contract provides for annual increases of no more than 2.5%.<\/td>\n
It is true that pay increases may not be new, but it is also true that the pace at which they have occurred has varied over the years and has tended to be more dramatic during times when graduate workers have been actively organizing and\/or negotiating union contracts.\u00a0 According to the University\u2019s own figures provided to the Graduate Student Advisory Council, for example, average annual stipend increases have roughly doubled since RAs and TAs started forming GWC-UAW in early 2014.\u00a0 From 2009-10 through 2013-14, the standard GSAS stipend increased, on average, 1.8% per year, whereas from 2014 to 2016-17 annual increases have averaged over 4%<\/a>.<\/p>\n
If Columbia provided paid dental insurance for all student assistants, like at NYU, UMass, and UW (University of Washington), Aetna would not have cancelled the dental plan because \u201cenrollment was too low.\u201d\u00a0 At the rate Aetna charged last year ($320), Columbia could have provided dental insurance to all 3,000 RAs and TAs for $960,000, which is in all likelihood less than they paid outside lawyers to oppose our right to a union.<\/p>\n
Help is available for concerns about student payroll and stipend payments, and to assist in the resolution of related documentation issues.<\/strong> Although these issues are rare, addressing them when they occur is very important. Any student who has a concern about payments should call 212-854-5000 to reach a dedicated help line. For inquiries related to student accounts, tuition and fees, refunds, and transcripts, students can contact the Student Service Centers, which can be found at http:\/\/ssc.columbia.edu\/<\/a>.<\/td>\n
Potential benefits under a union contract are unknown, but dues are a certainty. <\/strong>With union representation, compensation and benefits will be subject to collective bargaining and there is no guarantee that they will increase. Dues are more certain. The United Auto Workers at New York University (NYU) charges its members 2% of total compensation during the semesters in which a student is employed in a position covered by the union contract. At NYU, the union contract provides a mechanism by which the dues are automatically deducted from every paycheck. In addition to these dues, the United Auto Workers charges every member an initiation fee of approximately $50. If dues were the same 2% at Columbia, the annual net outflow from students to the union would be estimated at nearly $2 million every year – more than $550 per student, or the equivalent of a $50 million endowment.<\/td>\n
The administration wants us to believe that dues will be \u201cforced\u201d on us without our consent.\u00a0 In fact, we only begin to pay dues once we have elected a bargaining committee, negotiated our first contact, and voted democratically to approve that contract.\u00a0 Voting yes to the contract would mean we believe it is \u201cworth\u201d the investment of paying dues to sustain our representation and to enforce our rights under our contract moving forward.\u00a0 Dues provide critical resources to be able to represent ourselves long term \u2014 read here about the great successes of the union at UW in enforcing their rights under their contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The experience of state universities cannot predict our experience here.<\/strong>\u00a0 Columbia is not governed by state laws, which in some instances forbid public employees from striking; nor will state law shield bargaining over academic issues at our University.\u00a0 At NYU, the only private university with a teaching assistant union, a strike initiated in 2005 lasted 10 months and another strike was threatened in 2014, before the current contract was signed.<\/td>\n