BY HANK REICHMAN

A majority of teaching and research assistants at Columbia have voted to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board confirmed today, December 9.  Graduate and undergraduate students voted 1602 to 623 in favor of joining Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers Union.

University administrators and especially provost John Coatsworth had lobbied vigorously against unionization.  According to the Columbia Spectator, “While the union and administrators will have to negotiate a formal bargaining agreement, unionization will likely institute a formalized grievance procedure, which GWC has made a central issue of their campaign in the months leading up to the election. The GWC will also likely focus on issues including compensation and healthcare in the upcoming negotiations.”  Student employees will have one week to contest the way the election was conducted. If there are no such objections, the NLRB will move ahead and grant union certification.

The vote makes Columbia the second private university in the nation where graduate students will be represented by a national union.