7/3/2026 Bargaining Session: Progress on 10 articles

SWC’s Bargaining Committee is glad to have made progress towards a new contract at our last bargaining session with the University. You can read the notes from our June 3rd session here. We came prepared to discuss 10 articles, and the University brought 1 counter.

For those of you who have been asking us to focus on compensation at the table, we’re with you. The University has made it clear that they do not intend to engage with us on economic issues until we agree on more noneconomic issues. The best way to prioritize compensation is to work quickly and strategically through these articles, so we can narrow the number of issues under discussion.

🤝 2 TAs Reached

• We finalized Tentative Agreements (TAs) with the University on our Holidays and Union Management Committee articles. Follow along with our progress at the table using our bargaining proposal tracker. 

• Thank you to members who voted in our TA polls! These passed with 100% and 98% approvals, respectively.

🗂️ 4 Articles Closed Out

• We’re keeping our existing contract language on the Research Integrity, Transportation, Travel, and Copyright and Intellectual Property.

• Thanks again to everyone who voted in TA polls! These passed with 98%, 96.9%, 96.9%, and 97.9% approval, respectively.

🔄 Working through 4 Articles 

• Professional Development

  • The University returned a counter that added “reasonable travel costs” for conferences to the list of academic activities for which workers can expect reimbursement in a timely manner. We discussed with Columbia whether professional society membership fees incurred when registering for conferences are included. The University took the position that under the language they proposed, workers would be able to ask departments to cover this fee as a part of registration and could expect timely reimbursement should the expense be approved. 

  • We were concerned that not having language in the article specifically addressing professional society membership fees and similar expenses would lead workers and supervisors to not understand that they could be reimbursed or count on timely reimbursement. 

  • The Bargaining Committee feels the current language artificially limits the professional development expenses for which we can expect timely reimbursement. We returned a counter during our session to address this, but the University continues to maintain their position. 

• Workspace and Materials

  • The University hasn’t moved on distributing more of its available office space to TAs, despite us detailing significant struggles to find private or semi-private areas for office hours with students. 

  • We think our students deserve better than having to use hallways, cafes, and locked grad student spaces to receive sensitive feedback on their academic performance.

• Leaves of Absence

  • The University told us that 3 bereavement days is enough following the death of a loved one. We think members should have the option to take as much as 5 days to bury a parent, settle affairs, grieve, and return to work. Columbia’s lawyer, Daniel Johns, already authorized up to 5 days of bereavement when he represented UPenn in bargaining with their grad workers – what’s stopping him from approving this for Columbia workers as well? 

  • The University didn’t directly address the challenges of being an international worker on a F-1 or J-1 visa from countries impacted by new renewal requirements. Instead the University chose to nitpick that these visas are “student” visas. We need “student” visas to be student workers and shouldn’t have to use limited vacation time to maintain our immigration status to work for this school. 

  • The University should consider visa and immigration leave: Under the new visa renewal requirements, many international workers have to travel back to their countries of origin or sometimes third countries for the often multiweek visa renewal process. 

• Vacation 

  • The University still thinks our current amount of vacation time is “appropriate for part-time employees.” We countered to come closer to their vacation position, and hope to come to a fair agreement here soon.

📣 Take action for a better contract

The stronger and more visible our membership is, the better our position at the table. 

Join us at the next Bargaining Committee Meeting on Friday, June 5 at 1pm ET as we decide what to bring to the table for our next session. Join using this Zoom link.

⏭️ Up Next: Prepping for Bargaining on June 16 

Join us at our next bargaining session with the University on June 16 at 9am at the Interfaith Center of New York, 475 Riverside Drive. RSVP here.

We have hard conversations ahead, and this contract is not going to come easy. We need to stay organized and unified if we’re going to win a strong, fair deal for all of us.