Upward of 3,000 Columbia graduate-student workers are poised to stop grading papers, shelve teaching assignments and suspend research on March 15 if their bargaining unit and university administrators have not reached a contract agreement.
The strike threat comes two years after the university agreed to negotiate and more than four years after the grad workers voted to unionize. The union, the Graduate Workers of Columbia, GWC-UAW Local 2110, is seeking an initial agreement with the university. Among the proposals the students have brought to the bargaining table are additional compensation, appointment guarantees and job protections, fee and tuition waivers and health benefits.