Nearly five years after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate student workers at Columbia University were entitled to collective bargaining, the union there is still without a contract.
Today, union members are ending their second week on strike over stalled negotiations. Columbia has set up a system for teaching and research assistants to log in and affirm that they’re performing their duties. Those who don’t log in will be assumed to be on strike and go unpaid. If students were funded in a lump sum earlier in the term, their student accounts will be debited.