A Columbia Student Strike May Foreshadow the End of Unions
Universities and unions are not a good match.
Photographer: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
I was a graduate student at Columbia University when the United Auto Workers tried to unionize my classmates. I didn’t think it was a good idea. Our needs as students were much different from autoworkers, not to mention the dues and extra taxes we would owe.
There were many debates over the merits of joining, usually the economists against everyone else. Graduate students in other departments believed a union would get us better pay and benefits based on a romantic idea of solidarity with other workers. In the end they prevailed and the economists lost. Sure, graduate students got better pay but now the possibility of a strike at Columbia may threaten the partnership or even the future of private sector unions.