Columbia Postdoctoral Workers-United Auto Workers met with University representatives on Jan. 26—the latest step in its three-month-long grievance process—after alleging in November 2022 that Columbia is violating its collective bargaining agreement by excluding Journalism and Law School postdoctoral workers and associate researchers from the union.

These grievances come as the union hopes to move into negotiations to prepare its second-ever collective bargaining agreement, as the current one expires in June.

Since the formation of CPW-UAW in 2018, journalism and law postdocs have been gradually removed, often without notice, from the University’s list of in-unit, or eligible union members, according to union leaders. At its height in September 2019, 51 Journalism School and Law School postdocs were listed as in-unit. As of December 2022, only six remain.

University and union representatives met on Nov. 17 and Dec. 12 in accordance with the grievance process detailed under CPW-UAW’s CBA, but did not reach an agreement. On Dec. 22, the University proposed a Memorandum of Agreement. The proposal allowed for continued union membership for any current law and journalism postdocs but did not make assurances for future cases—which union leaders say is not enough.

The union rejected the agreement, instead initiating the second step of the grievance process on Dec. 23 by filing a written grievance to the deans of the Journalism and Law Schools. The University then had the option to hold an additional meeting, which it did on Jan. 26.

Now, the University has until Feb. 5 to respond to the union. If a satisfactory solution for both parties cannot be reached, the negotiation will move into third party arbitration in accordance with the CBA.

Cora Bergantinos-Crespo, the president of CPW-UAW Local 4100 since September 2020 and a former postdoctoral research scientist in genetics and development, said that it was important for journalism and law postdocs to be offered “the same protections as any other postdoc in the University.”

Union leaders have expressed frustrations at delays throughout the process. The first step grievance meeting was delayed from Nov. 9 to Nov. 17 at the University’s request after the union requested additional members be permitted to attend. The University then requested an extension on the second-step meeting until after Jan. 11, when the executive director of labor and employee relations would be back in the office. The union agreed to the extension, and planned to meet on Jan. 19. However, according to Pierre-Jacques Brun, CPW-UAW’s financial secretary and an associate research scientist, the University requested another extension the day before they were scheduled to meet because a member of the academic appointments division in the Office of the Provost had an unforeseen conflict.

Although CPW-UAW’s CBA requires the University to schedule a meeting or issue a written response within 10 days of the grievance filing, a total of 34 days passed between the filing of the grievance and the second-step meeting.

“The parties are discussing this within the contractual grievance process,” a University spokesperson wrote in a statement to Spectator.

Bergantinos-Crespo and Brun were two primary representatives from the union present at the three grievance meetings.

“Our fundamental question to them is, ‘How was this decision made?’” Brun said. “Who made that decision? … Did you think thoroughly about the consequences of your decision?”

The disagreement stems from differing interpretations of a 2018 National Labor Relations Board decision that set the terms for the scope of the union. CPW-UAW’s current contract with the University Trustees defines the union’s purpose as serving “all postdoctoral researchers who have received a doctorate or its professional equivalent who provide services to Columbia University.”

The NLRB lists five groups as eligible members for CPW-UAW: “Postdoctoral Research Scientists, Postdoctoral Research Scholars, Postdoctoral Research Fellows, Associate Research Scientists, and Associate Research Scholars.”

Journalism and law postdocs who do not hold Ph.D.s in separate fields had previously been considered postdoctoral research scholars, research fellows, or associate research fellows, depending on their previous professional experience and still are listed as such in the Columbia directory, former union members told Spectator. All postdocs in journalism and law have or are pursuing a Masters of Journalism or a J.D., respectively, according to descriptions of the opportunities on the departments’ websites.

However, in email exchanges between union leaders and the University prior to the initial informal grievance meeting, representatives from the University pointed to a line in the “Skills and Training” section of the NLRB’s decision, which states, “All of the employees in the proposed unit have Ph.D.s in their fields and are conducting independent research.”

The union’s list of grievances also includes claims that the University has failed to meet requirements to send regular lists of eligible and active union members to the NLRB. The CBA requires the University to send the union monthly updates of who is considered in-unit for the union. According to documents provided by the union, only two lists were sent in 2021. In 2022, the University provided eight listings, but these were still not monthly.

The union’s scope has been in dispute since its formation in 2018. In initial negotiations, the University petitioned to decrease union eligibility, arguing in the hearings that Postdoctoral Research Scientists and Scholars and Postdoctoral Research Fellows “do not share a community of interest with the Associate Research Scientist/Scholars.”

Once the NLRB released the Decision and Direction of Election on Sept. 18, 2018, which defined the scope of the union, the University challenged it through a request for review, restating concerns similar to their initial arguments. The University later withdrew its request, however, following the union’s formal opposition, which argued that there were vast overlaps between the salaries, skill levels, and University hiring practices between Associate Researchers and Postdocs.

Bergantinos-Crespo said that by limiting the union’s membership, the University is able to weaken the union’s collective power as the deadline for their second contract approaches. For Bergantinos-Crespo, the involvement of journalism and law postdocs in the union is particularly important during the negotiation process.

“One of the issues, for instance, is the question of intellectual property,” Bergantinos-Crespo said. “That is really important also for journalists. … We think that they should be part of the discussion on how we are going to implement those protections. It definitely could be a big blow if they can not be part of that.”

Bergantinos-Crespo cited this variety of backgrounds coming into the union as one of its greatest strengths.

“One of the things that is really beautiful about our union, to be honest, is the fact that we all come from all across the world, we all do different types of work, from climate research to cancer to journalism,” she said. “We are all working together in the University. And I think forming a union that is so diverse, it’s really where I think that our strength lies.”

The CPW-UAW, the first postdoc union in New York City and at a private American university, ratified its first contract in July 2020, which is set to expire at the end of June 2023. CPW-UAW will move into negotiation for their next contract shortly, in which they hope to further increase protections and rights for postdocs.

Law postdocs never received any formal communication regarding the change, Bergantinos-Crespo said. Last August, postdocs in journalism received an email from the provost that they were no longer eligible for union membership and would receive new appointment letters to reflect that their positions are not covered by the union, according to documents provided by the union.

“The provost had communicated to the school that the union and management had agreed that they couldn’t be in the union,” Bergantinos-Crespo said. “We were not aware of that at all.”

Korey G. Silverman-Roati, an associate research scholar at the University and a climate law fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, said he was frustrated with the University’s decision to deny him union eligibility “without consulting any researchers at the law or journalism schools.”

“As part of their reasoning, they said that all law and journalism researchers who do not have Ph.D.s are not qualified for the positions that they are in, and … do not belong in the union,” Silverman-Roati wrote in a statement to Spectator. “I find it insulting that the university is undercutting the work of me and my fellow law and journalism researchers by arguing that we are not qualified for the positions we are in.”

CPW-UAW staff organizer Tsering Say echoed these concerns. “What’s coming out of this is a feeling of almost hurt pride,” Say said. “Columbia is saying to them, ‘Oh, your degrees that are so highly prized, and which we clearly looked for when we were hiring people for your positions, are not good enough to be considered postdoc.”

Madeline Fixler, a postdoctoral research scholar in the Journalism School, said the University has referred to her by this title on both her contract and her hiring agreement but denied her union eligibility.

“It’s the feeling of, you know, being respected and being valued,” Fixler said. “The notion that if worst case scenario, something were to happen, and I, or one of my colleagues, would need the protection of the union, then we would like to have it,” Fixler said.

The postdocs who were initially eligible union members but have since been cut from the union have not yet received any refund for dues paid before this decision, Bergantinos-Crespo said.

Brun explained that the University’s reliance on grants posed additional financial implications in the reclassification of postdocs in law and in journalism out of the bargaining unit. He said many of these public grants are awarded under the presumption that the grantees are in a postdoc title. Without this title, Columbia risks losing these grants for those in journalism and law, ultimately costing the University.

“If [the University] basically reclassified these people, all the grant money that they got—so that’s in the past—or the revenue they’re asking for in the near future, they won’t qualify for this amount of money,” Brun said.

Bergantinos-Crespo said that the union will continue to push for journalism and law postdocs to be included, despite the obstacles.

“If they want to fight, you know, we are definitely ready,” Bergantinos-Crespo said.