The 2021–2022 Columbia University strike was a labor strike involving graduate student workers at Columbia University in New York City. The strike began on March 15, 2021, and ended on May 13, 2021. However, additional strike action commenced on November 3 and lasted until January 7, 2022, when a tentative agreement with the university was reached. The strike was organized by the Graduate Workers of Columbia–United Auto Workers Local 2110 (SWC–UAW), a labor union representing student workers at the university. The goals of the strike were an increase in wages, increased healthcare and childcare coverage, and third-party arbitration in cases of discrimination and sexual harassment.
While the union voted in March 2020 to authorize strike action, these plans were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in February 2021, still without a labor contract, the union announced their intent to strike the following month. The strike began on March 15 as an open-ended strike action, with no set end date. The strike coincided with a tuition strike that had been coordinated by the local chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America. Picketing and other forms of protest were held at numerous Columbia locations throughout New York City, and multiple elected officials and politicians announced their support for the strikers. On April 19, a contract proposal was submitted for ratification by the union members, but it was rejected in a rank-and-file vote. Following this, a vote was held in early May to determine the future of the strike, with a majority of voters choosing to end the strike, which officially ended on May 13.
Following the end of the strike, on July 3, new leaders for the union were elected who promised to continue to push for a labor contract with the university. Additionally, the name of the union was changed to the Student Workers of Columbia. While negotiations were set to resume on August 25, disagreements between the two groups led to a deadlock in negotiations, and in late September, the union voted to authorize another strike action. This renewed strike action began on November 3 and continued through late 2021 and into early 2022. The union and the university entered mediation on November 22, 2021, after both parties agreed to hire independent labor mediator Kevin Flanigan. The strike continued until January 7, 2022, when the union voted to stop striking after approving a tentative agreement between the university and union that included several concessions to the union, such as increased healthcare and childcare coverage, increased pay, and changes to the arbitration process at Columbia. By a vote of 2,099 to 51, the union approved the contract on January 28.
Background Unionization at Columbia
In a 2018 article, The New York Times stated that "[t]he question of whether graduate students at private universities can unionize has seesawed for years, depending, in part, on the political leanings of the members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)." In 2000, the board ruled in favor of allowing graduate students at New York University (NYU) to unionize, leading to a surge in similar unionization at several American universities. However, in a 2004 ruling regarding a labor union at Brown University, the board reversed its decision and ruled that teaching assistants are not covered under federal labor law. In 2016, the board would again reverse its decision in a case involving a unionization effort at Columbia University in New York City. In December of that year, following the ruling, graduate students at the university voted 1,602 to 623 to unionize with the United Auto Workers (UAW), with approximately 3,500 graduate students as part of this new union, called the Graduate Workers of Columbia–United Auto Workers (GWC–UAW) Local 2110. Shortly afterwards, the university appealed to the board, which found that the vote had been fair and that the union should be recognized. In January 2018, the university stated they would not bargain with the union, prompting legal proceedings in a federal appeals court. In April, the union performed a one-week strike over the university's refusal to recognize them. By 2019, Columbia had agreed to recognize the union.
Contract negotiations Starting in 2019, the union and university began to negotiate over their first labor contract, with the union's bargaining unit meeting with university officials for the first time on February 26 of that year. However, after over a year, no agreement had been reached between the two parties. The main point of contention between the two groups was on the issue of union recognition, as the university recognized only doctoral students who were fully funded as union members, while the union also recognized students pursuing a master's degree and undergraduate students working as teaching assistants as well. In addition to expanded recognition, the union was also seeking expanded health benefits and increased subsidies for child care. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the union was also pushing for a one-year funding extension for doctoral candidates whose research had been interrupted by pandemic shutdowns. In March 2020, the union voted 1,833 to 77 in favor of strike action against the university. However, due to the pandemic, plans for the strike were postponed, and the university and union continued to negotiate.
Starting in January 2021, a large group of primarily undergraduate students at Columbia began an unrelated tuition strike, seeking both a decrease in the cost of tuition and an increase in student financial aid during the pandemic. The strike was in large part organized by the local chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), who also supported the GWC–UAW and was working with them in their contract negotiations, with full recognition of the union being an additional demand of the tuition strike. During the strike, a deadline of February 25 was instated, after which point, if no agreement between the union and university had been made, the union would prepare for strike action. On February 25, with no agreement in place after 64 bargaining sessions, union members gathered on the steps of the Low Memorial Library and announced their intent to begin striking on March 15. At the time of the announcement, an article in the Columbia Daily Spectator stated that "[a]bout 10 demands" were still being discussed, with full union recognition being chief among them. U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez showed her support for the union by sending coffee and doughnuts to the GWC–UAW members, while additional support was voiced by New York City Council member Mark Levine. On March 8, interim provost Ira Katznelson sent an open letter addressing the strike notice, claiming that, while both sides were working towards an agreement, the union's demands for wage increases were "neither reasonable nor responsible in present circumstances". An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education criticized Katznelson's approach to the situation, calling his stance hypocritical based on his previous involvement with the labor movement and even calling him a "labor sympathizer". A March 11 article in the Spectator reported that the union and university were still holding bargaining sessions in an attempt to avoid the strike action, though the 10 points of contention were still unaddressed at that point. The last day of official bargaining discussions between the two groups was on March 12.
Initial strike On March 15, with no agreement between the university and union, the strike officially began, affecting an approximate 3,000 members of the GWC–UAW. A GoFundMe page was set up to serve as a strike fund, which raised US$57,000 that first day. Picketing commenced at several locations around the university, including at College Walk and at the intersection of Broadway and 116th Street. Starting on March 17, additional picketing took place at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Washington Heights, with additional picketing scheduled over the next several days at the Jerome L. Greene Science Center. On March 18, picketing expanded to the part of the university in Manhattanville. Over the course of the first week of the strike, multiple elected officials and candidates voiced their support for the strike, including 2021 New York City mayoral candidates Maya Wiley and Scott Stringer (who is also the current New York City Comptroller), New York City Council member Brad Lander, and Manhattan District Attorney candidate Eliza Orlins, among others. Additionally, the Spectator reported that numerous undergraduate students were in support of the strike, including the president of the Class of 2024. On March 18, union and university representatives met over Zoom for a bargaining session, during which the Spectator reported, "tensions were higher than usual". By the end of the first week of the strike, the Spectator reported that both sides were considering outside mediation to help in the negotiations. The next meeting between the two groups at this time was scheduled for March 23. On March 19, the graduate union for NYU announced that they would be holding a vote to authorize strike action against their respective university, with the GWC–UAW announcing their support.
On March 24, news website Bwog reported that, following the March 23 meeting between the union and university, the two parties were primarily focused on discussing issues regarding arbitration for claims made by union members of harassment and discrimination, with the union pushing for third-party arbitration in those cases. On March 31, the Columbia Law School chapter of the Law School Democrats of America canceled an event with former U.S. Representative Ben McAdams in a show of solidarity with the strikers. On April 1, the graduate student union at North Carolina State University published an op-ed in the Technician wherein they voiced their support for the Columbia union. On April 2, U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman and New York City Council member Carlina Rivera attended pickets and voiced their support, with Bowman comparing the efforts of the GWC–UAW members to the Bessemer union drive, saying "Capitalism is destroying our humanity, [but] we are going to win". Later that day, the bargaining unit for the GWC–UAW voted 7–3 to accept an offer by the university to have outside mediation in exchange for a pause on strike action. According to polling of GWC–UAW members, only a small fraction approved of the bargaining unit's decision, with one member of the unit who had voted against the offer claiming in an article published by the Spectator that "It was very clear to me that many other members of the bargaining committee were unwilling to continue striking, no matter what". As the decision was made on a Friday, GWC–UAW members returned to work the following Monday, April 5. That same day, following a vote organized by the local YDSA chapter, students at Columbia ended their tuition strike. Despite the bargaining unit's decision, GWC–UAW members in the university's religion department stated they would continue to strike until the union's demands are met.