3/9/2026 bargaining session: Academic Freedom, AI, and Non-Discrimination and Harassment Articles
At bargaining on Monday, we discussed our Academic Freedom, Artificial Intelligence, and Non-Discrimination and Harassment articles. The University continued its practice of focusing on semantics at the expense of addressing the concrete issues that affect our workplace, including unjust terminations, lack of disability accommodations, bullying, and power-based harassment by PIs. The University seemed entirely uninterested in negotiating a mutually beneficial NDH article with us, at one point refusing to explain why they believed it was inappropriate to contractually require that they notify workers of the right to request disability accommodations prior to their employment start date, despite our bargaining committee asking twelve times.
After these presentations, SWC delivered a counter on Grievance and Arbitration. The University also delivered counters on Training and Benefits. The University’s counter on healthcare benefits shows little movement from its last proposal.
You can see all articles passed by both sides linked on our proposal tracker as well as the live transcription of Monday’s negotiations.
Non-Discrimination and Harassment
We delivered our Non-Discrimination and Harassment Article counter on February 27. At this session, workers delivered testimonies that detailed problems with the University’s existing policies for combating discrimination and harassment.
One worker shared: “A little over a year ago, one of my three cohort members died by suicide. I cannot emphasize how much my friend’s circumstances were made worse due to systemic issues surrounding disability accommodations at Columbia.”
Another student worker, who had left the university due to power-based harassment, shared that “faculty hold unchecked power over student workers and exercise it routinely,” and that “the impact of this abusive dynamic is disproportionately on student workers from marginalized backgrounds, on women, on those on visas, on those with disabilities who find ourselves trapped in a precarious situation.”
A third worker, who serves on the University’s Anti-Bullying Committee – which the University’s bargaining team touted as sufficient for addressing the problem in a past session – testified that the committee is “extremely insufficient” and has stagnated for the past four years.
The University’s team refused to respond to the testimonies directly. It also refused to accept language that deals with power-based harassment. Instead, CU representatives asked union members to direct complaints to existing channels, including the Anti-Bullying Committee, the shortcomings of which had already been detailed in our member testimony.
Academic Freedom
The SWC team also presented our Academic Freedom article, which seeks to define academic freedom according to language used by the American Association of University Professors and to protect the rights of student workers. The University’s team dismissed the need for codified protection.
Artificial Intelligence
The SWC bargaining team gave a presentation on our AI article, which we passed to the University on February 11. The article aims to provide guardrails for the use of AI in the workplace, especially to prevent the replacement of student worker jobs with AI.
Columbia’s outside counsel, Dan Johns, continued to nitpick on semantics without engaging with the content of the article. Academic Freedom
The SWC team also presented our Academic Freedom article, which seeks to define academic freedom according to language used by the American Association of University Professors and to protect the rights of student workers.
The University’s team dismissed the need for codified protection.
Here’s what some of the members who observed the session have to say:
“After harrowing testimonies from brave student-workers, I was floored when the University responses to our NDH article was dismissively telling us to “communicate better” via existing channels! The failures of those very systems have worsened unsafe and even fatal situations for us student-workers. You know they’re not taking us seriously when they won’t contractually promise to link Columbia’s own disability services in worker pre-boarding!”
– PhD worker in SEAS
“The testimonies in support of our Non-Discrimination and Harassment Article were truly harrowing and enraging. It was actually shocking the way some of the University’s representatives just brushed it off.”
– PhD worker in GSAS Humanities
“I came in midway through the discussion of the academic freedom articles, and our representatives were amazingly well prepared and articulate. At every turn the university refused to engage on a good faith basis … I don't see issues that are relevant to the community as mutually exclusive with student worker rights. And that seems to be the refrain to which they constantly refer as a means of not engaging.”
– PhD worker in GSAS Languages and Area Studies
Columbia’s stonewalling shows that it only responds to pressure. This week we have escalated our campaign by winning our Strike Authorization Vote, with 75% of membership voting and 91.5% of participants voting “yes.” Achieving a more livable, safe, and just workplace requires continued organizing. We owe this effort to ourselves, our colleagues, and those who will come after us.
Come get the latest news and see the University’s response for yourself at the next bargaining session on Friday, March 20. RSVP here.