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.
It’s one of a growing number of student worker unions striking for better working conditions across the country, including at New York University, which reached a contract after striking in the spring, and Harvard University, where a three-day strike ended in early November with an agreement.
Columbia University has indicated that it will only consider significant concessions through mediation, which began on Monday. The university declined to comment, referring instead to statements made by the administration and distributed campuswide.
As the holidays creep in and the semester draws to a close, pressure is mounting for the university and the student workers’ union to reach an agreement and return the campus to normalcy.
Several union members said they have been pushing hard for higher wages to make it possible for more lower-income students to attend Columbia. The current pay scale, they said, shuts out potential students who cannot make a living on graduate student worker income alone.
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