Columbia Researchers To Strike Over Contract Dispute

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY - 1,600 researchers from Columbia University’s postdoctoral workers union are slated to go on strike starting next month if a new contract isn't inked with the school.

Though the union and the university have engaged in more than 25 bargaining sessions since April for the contract that expired June 30, officials from The Union for Postdoctoral Researchers at Columbia University (CPW-UAW 4100) say no progress has been made in negotiations regarding wage increases, housing stipends and parental support.

“The university’s failure to negotiate in good faith, remedy its labor law violations, and agree to a fair contract for postdoctoral workers is leading us to a strike that we have been trying to avoid,” local union president Cora Bergantiños-Crespo said in a statement.

The CPW-UAW 4100 picket line is set to begin Nov. 1 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the Morningside Heights (116th Street and Broadway) and the Medical Center (168th and Broadway) campuses.

According to a statement from the university, Columbia offered the union a settlement in August poised to "make Columbia one of the most competitive employers among its Ivy-league peers and other major research universities," which included minimum compensation levels of $65,000 for postdoc workers and $71,606 for associate research scientists; increases to pay minimums each year and annual wage increases of no less than 3 percent.

The offer also included an increase in its child care FSA contribution to $5,000; a $400,000 hardship fund for unexpected medical expenses reimbursement and housing assistance; an annual $3,500 payment to fellows for retirement; a $1,500 relocation payment for new workers; and reimbursement of entry visa stamp renewal costs up to $1,250.

In response to the offer, the union reportedly demanded an increase of 20 to 27 percent more than the minimum salary level for an entry-level worker plus a 3 percent increase for each year of experience either at Columbia or any other institution, the university said. Other reported demands include annual compensation increases for each year of the three-year contract of 6 to 8 percent and a $7,000/year housing subsidy.

Postdoctoral workers at the school are currently paid a minimum of $60,000, according to union officials, a salary considered low income by New York City standards as it falls just over 60 percent of the area median income. For comparison, the 2023 area median income for the New York City region is $98,900 for a single-person household.

Affordable monthly rent payments for someone making roughly 60 percent of the AMI is $1,589, according to the same city data. It’s a vast departure from Morningside Heights’ average one-bedroom monthly asking rent of $3,698, per StreetEasy.

“Columbia is one of the wealthiest institutions in the country and largest landowners in NYC, and getting richer every year,” Panos Oikonomou, an associate researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences, said in a statement. “It would only cost a tiny fraction of their net assets to give us workers a decent, living wage.”

Postdoc workers from the university represent an array of fields, including cancer and neurodegenerative disease studies to environmental threats and public health risks, union organizers said — all the while, bringing in millions of dollars to the school through research grants from public and private entities.

From July 2022 and June 2023, postdocs and associate research scientists helped bring in $1.8 billion in research funding from private and public agencies, which is about $300 million more than the revenue Columbia collected from tuition across all of its schools in the same period, according to figures from the union.

Only 0.2 percent of its $8.3 billion in unrestricted funds would be required to foot the bill for the workers' contract demands, organizers say. A Columbia University spokesperson did not comment on the figures provided by the union.

While Nov. 5 is the final deadline for grant renewals and resubmissions to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), union organizers say an overlapping strike could lead to millions of dollars in lost funding and research opportunities.

“We can still avoid this strike, but the university has been dismissing our demands for more than six months and we need to focus on our research projects," said Michael Mauro, a postdoc in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. "We will strike until the university brings a proposal that truly meets our needs and recognizes the value we bring to this institution."