Frustrated over slow-moving contract negotiations, Columbia University’s graduate student workers are on strike for the second time this year, with a labor contract and the university’s fraught relationship with its graduate students on the line.
The Student Workers of Columbia, a United Auto Workers Local 2110 union with about 3,000 graduate and undergraduate students, have been picketing to secure greater worker protections and higher wages since the beginning of the month.
“I think there’s a perception that the higher-ed labor movement is unimportant because a lot of people in schools like Columbia come from privileged backgrounds, and I think that is true, to an extent,” said Johannah King-Slutzky, 31, a doctoral student in Columbia’s English department and a union member.
“I also think one of the reasons that the higher education labor movement at Columbia and elsewhere is so important is because we really need to make this accessible to people who don’t have a safety net to fall back on.”