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After voting against the tentative contract agreement reached during their spring strike, graduate assistants at Columbia University went on strike again Wednesday. The United Auto Workers-affiliated graduate student union’s outstanding concerns include access to neutral third-party arbitration in harassment and discrimination cases, comprehensive health care benefits with vision and dental coverage, and pay. The union says that graduate student workers make thousands less than the basic cost of living in New York.
Provost Mary C. Boyce said in an update about contract negotiations that recent university proposals enhance what the university offered following the last strike, for a contract that would include minimum compensation for doctoral students of $42,766 for on 12-month appointments and $32,074 for students on 9-month appointments, with 3 percent annual increases, significant changes to university procedures for handling discrimination and harassment grievances, up to a semester of funding for Ph.D. students who have to change advisors and a support fund for reimbursement of out-of-pocket medical, dental and vision expenses.
