Student Workers of Columbia

Our members will be meeting this week to make a collective action plan to win our demands! Get ready, Columbia 😉

Our members speaking to Dan Driscoll, a Vice-Presidence and head of Human Resources at Columbia University

We marched to see the University's HR & lawyers and handed them the articles we want to see in a new contract.

Our membership demands that the University open the gates and get cops off our campus, protect its non-citizen workers, and offer speedy resolutions for contract violations!

Bargaining committee members sitting at a table

During our caucus, our bargaining team called the University to ask why they refused to meet us at the agreed unpon time.

No answer.

Union members smiling and raising their left fists in Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan

Yet again, Columbia University refused to bargain with its student workers. Yesterday we caucused together at Trinity Lutheran Church, while the University bargaining team sat in their small room afraid to face us.

Eager to undermine the bargaining process, the university has now graciously announced a “raise” in stipends that amounts to… a 0.1% increase after inflation

Now, CU demands to meet only our bargaining team in a "non-bargaining" meeting. Email and call CU head of labor relations Linda Eisner at lmischel@columbia.edu and +1 212 854 9557. Tell her to face her workers on October 6th @ 11AM.

We quickly secured a space near campus large enough for our observers. Late on Friday, CU refused to attend the session, claiming that Trinity Lutheran Church is not “an appropriate place.” Bargaining across industries routinely occurs in faith-based spaces.

The members of SWC are eager to ink a new contract. As a sign of good faith, we agreed to meet with only in-person observers. After we mutually confirmed our availability on October 6th at 11AM, Columbia insisted we meet them in a 20-person room that hardly seats both teams.

Columbia canceled bargaining, again.

We are still gathering at Trinity Lutheran Church on Monday. Our demands are commonsense: protection for non-citizens, no cops or surveillance on campus, and fast resolution for contract violations.

Columbia, will you meet us?

In Landmark Ruling, Federal Court Says Trump Administration Violated First Amendment By Deporting Foreign Citizens for Pro-Palestinian Advocacy

⬇️ NEWS: “This is a historic ruling that should have immediate implications for the Trump administration’s policies. If the First Amendment means anything, it means the government can’t imprison people simply because it disagrees with their political views."
knightcolumbia.org/content/in-l...

Mohsen Mahdawi and Mahmoud Khalil outside Columbia’s (locked) gates on the eve of their possible deportation

Charles and David Koch - The Koch Brothers Charles de Ganahl Koch and David Hamilton Koch are the notorious Koch Bothers. The brothers own Koch Industries and are major benefactors for organizations and candidates involved in pushing radical R...

Credits! Caricature of Koch brothers by DonkeyHotey, used under Creative Commons BY 2.0. license. The original background of a US map was removed. Original art: flickr.com/photos/donke...

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It’s time for Colorado to remove barriers to unionization: Outdated “second election” rule is rooted in anti-worker, white supremacist history Summary: An anti-union Colorado law, passed in 1943 amid intense big business and white supremacist campaigns to block worker organizing, has suppressed unionization in the state.  Resulting low and d...

SWC remains focused on meeting with the university to bargain and win a contract that improves the lives of the workers we represent. Together, we can win a better university!

Learn more about so-called “right to work”: epi.org/research/rig...

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Higher education is one of the sectors seeing the fastest growth of unionization, and student worker unions are an obstacle to the right-wing agenda against academia.

Effective organizing attracts groups like NRTW. We must be doing something right! 😉

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The NRTW was founded in 1968 and supported by figures like the Koch brothers to undermine labor rights and fight union security clauses.

The movement has its roots in the segregationist South, where the wealthy wanted to undermine unions as venues of racial integration. 2/5

Graphic with red background and caricatures of the Koch brothers. Text: What is the "National Right to Work Foundation"? Why are they going after student worker unions?" and "Koch brothers who fund NRTW"

In July, the “National Right to Work Foundation” filed a ULP against the Cornell Graduate Student Union. In September, it filed a nuisance ULP against the Student Workers of Columbia.

Why is this right-wing org so obsessed with us? 🤔

The Columbia administration's capitulation to the Trump regime has facilitated its deplorable union busting. Support @swcolumbia.bsky.social in its fight against the university's unfair labor practices.

As Columbia slashes Ph.D. Core Curriculum teaching positions, doctoral students scramble academically and financially <i>Updated Sept. 11 at 11:12 a.m.</i>

"Candidates have abandoned their research plans, accepted jobs at other institutions, or in one case, may leave the country entirely—potentially cutting short an academic career in the United States."

www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/09...

I'd say in the exceptionally intense competition for the elite university that has been the most obeisant to Trump's agenda, Columbia University takes first place. Not content to destroy academic freedom, it goes after workers' rights. Kudos to @swcolumbia.bsky.social for standing up!

union busting is disgusting

“Although I’ve been suspended for at least two years, I don’t regret risking my career in support of the Palestinian resistance.”

Jessie Lee Rubin, a (suspended) PhD candidate at Columbia University, explains how free speech in the US comes with a “Palestine exception.”

First-day-of-class protests included a faculty press conference, a rally led by Morningside Heights Community Coalition, and a practice picket by UAW Local 2710, Student Workers of Columbia (SWC).

Contact info@studentworkersofcolumbia.com for press inquiries

Screenshot of press release with SWC logo. Text: Columbia University Begins School Year by Filing an NLRB Charge that Risks Student Workers’ Right to Unionize Nationwide Over the summer, the University expelled and suspended 80 students, eliminated all but about ten graduate instructor jobs, and filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge that could reshape the future of higher ed. NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Hundreds of teachers, students, and community members gathered outside Columbia University’s Morningside Campus during the first day of class on September 2, 2025 to protest the University’s collaboration with the Trump administration and Columbia’s shocking new attempt to eliminate graduate labor rights across the country. The protests included a faculty press conference, a rally led by Morningside Heights Community Coalition, and a practice picket by UAW Local 2710, Student Workers of Columbia (SWC).

📰PRESS RELEASE: Columbia University Begins School Year by Filing an NLRB Charge that Risks Student Workers’ Right to Unionize Nationwide

Read more: docs.google.com/document/d/e...

All events at Broadway & 116th St. gate of Morningside campus 🪧

Happy first day of the semester!

It’s a great day to demand accountability from Columbia - a multi-billion corporation that caved to Trump, slashed union jobs, and broke promises to our neighbors time and again.

Rally at 11am and practice picket at 1pm - let’s go! ☀️😍

RSVP Practice Picket - September 2 Join your coworkers to demand a reversal of the core cuts and to open the gates!

Join us to demand a fair contract, open campus, and restoration of our jobs!

Picket RSVP: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Poster with megaphone. Text: FIRST DAY OF CLASS PRACTICE PICKET! 1 PM SEPTEMBER 2ND 116TH & BROADWAY It's a new semester and Columbia still won't budge! Join us for a picket to show them we mean business! SWC-UAW LOCAL 2710

Happy labor day! Start the academic year by celebrating people power 💪

Tomorrow at Broadway & 116 St gate of Morningside campus:

🎙️10am AAUP press conference
📢11am “Open the Gates” rally w/ Morningside neighbors
🪧1pm SWC practice picket

Open letter to Columbia administration on replacing union instructional labor Columbia has eliminated almost all graduate teaching positions in the Core Curriculum, the first-year writing program, language classes, and labs in STEM. Signatories of the open letter pledge not to ...

Join 600+ signatories of the no-scabbing pledge 🌹
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Last-minute adjunct positions at Columbia replace union labor and undermines the fight for decent working conditions in higher ed nationwide.

Join the fight and do not scab!

Open letter to Columbia administration on replacing union instructional labor Columbia has eliminated almost all graduate teaching positions in the Core Curriculum, the first-year writing program, language classes, and labs in STEM. Signatories of the open letter pledge not to ...

To the members of faculty who sent us words of support: thank you so much for your solidarity - you show us the best of academia.

Sign the no-scabbing pledge and tell Columbia that you stand with student workers 5/5