I'm one of the four fired employees. I was a writer & producer at Bon Appétit for nearly five years, during which I helped organize our union and sat on our bargaining committee. I am, to my knowledge, the only trans woman in our union and the only trans woman on editorial who doesn't work at Them

Four union media workers were fired, in violation of their rights at work—that is a canary for all of us in this business. If we lose power at work, trust me it’s not any easier to hold anyone with political power to account.

🚨 New @therealnews.com: I speak w/ a panel of grad student workers & union members from Columbia University & the University of Michigan about the chilling new reality on their campuses & what it’s like to live, learn, & work there today @swcolumbia.bsky.social therealnews.com/campus-life-...

Columbia will whine and moan about being under the boot of the Trump regime but gleefully seek their aid in SUPPRESSING UNION LABOR

Columbia surveilled and threatened our members, who picketed and successfully forced Columbia to the bargaining table. The University’s union busting will not stop our members from engaging in NLRA-protected activity. Read our press release here: docs.google.com/document/d/e... #labor #highered

UAW sues the Trump admin for surveilling members. This is what a UNION can do for you 🔥

We forced Columbia to the table. After we marched on the boss, picketed, tabled, and stood up against Public Safety’s attempts to stop our organizing, CU caved. On Nov 7th we will face Columbia in a 170-person capacity room in Interchurch Center! RSVP: tinyurl.com/11-7-bargain...

@sbworkersunited.org members are electing strike captains and getting customers to pledge not to cross picket lines. They’re amassing in front of stores with signs, borrowing a slogan from UPS Teamsters: “Just Practicing for a Just Contract.” labornotes.org/2025/10/stri...

October 21 is #Columbiagivingday. Instead of picking up the bill for CU’s corruption, donate to the Student Worker Aid Collective, an independent mutual aid fund run by workers. opencollective.com/student-work...

Former Columbia Provost Jonathan Cole asks the university to bravely admit where it was wrong: www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2025...

While marching to deliver our demands we discovered that CU had lied -- again. The large conferences rooms that would accomodate all our colleagues who want to see the union bargain on their behalf were empty. CU had insisted that the rooms were "not available" to hide from our members.

After marching on the boss to deliver our demands, Columbia gave us the 3% raises they had been withholding. Of course, we are fighting for so much more. Read more about Columbia’s refusal to bargain with us here: www.studentworkersofcolumbia.com/updates/oct-...

"The unfortunate reality is that graduate workers have to defend ourselves not only from Trump, but also from administrators, who would rather cut education and research than reconsider executive bloat."

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

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?

⬇️ 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

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.

"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.”

📰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...

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! ☀️😍

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

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!

Professors stand with student workers as Columbia slashes jobs to union bust Prof @anneliseorleck1.bsky.social at Darthmouth: “Unionization is essential to ensure decent wages, course load and job security. What Columbia is doing is immoral and illegal." 1/5

Taking adjunct gigs at Columbia undermines the grad union @swcolumbia.bsky.social, so turn them down in solidarity.

Thank you to Columbia undergrads for speaking out against the grad instructor job cut! 🔥 One wrote: “Your working conditions are our learning conditions. Columbia has given $220 million to fascists but is crying poverty in contract negotiations with precarious academic workers.”

The attack on student unions is an attack - in concert with Trump - on the better version of the university we are fighting for. Thank you for covering our and @hgsuuaw.bsky.social's contract campaigns against corporate universities.

We are fighting for a better future for workers and universities together 🌹

We're blown away by fellow workers’ solidarity. Our no scabbing pledge has over 550 signatures! Here is what some of them have to say: “I’m a lecturer at Columbia, and it’s appalling to see contingent faculty pitted against graduate students as a union busting tactic.” 🧵1/4

“Columbia Executive Vice-President of Arts and Sciences Amy Hungerford’s compensation: $894,126 a year, 18 times the average dining worker pay and 24 times the pay of student workers in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, where she’s a professor.” Read more from Labor Notes

I signed this letter and hope you do too. Grad student workers deserve better treatment.

“As we press forward through the series of crises that have impacted our University, we are aware of a need for the faculty, administration and students to come together in a culture of mutual aid and collegial support for each other.” We deeply appreciate our faculty allies.

It was so energizing to join our union siblings of UAW local 2110 and SEIU local 1199 on the picket line. Columbia is cheating all workers on campus - we are ready to fight together!

While scrambling to replace our labor, Columbia blasted the university listserv that it had filed an unfair labor practice charge against SWC (!), alleging we are “not bargaining in good faith.” But let’s check the record: who’s failing to show up?

Union Busting is Disgusting. Shame on Columbia for this and so many other reasons, but going to war against your student workers because otherwise you might have to pay them enough to live on is shameful.

With less than a month before the semester starts, Columbia admin are “relieving” student workers from their teaching jobs. These notices follow drastic cuts to the Core & University Writing. CU is scrambling to hire scabs to replace our labor for language classes like Spanish.

I signed this letter in solidarity, as a former member of SWC and former Core Curriculum preceptor:

It’s official – after months of Columbia administrators quietly working to eliminate grad instructor jobs, Lit Hum and the Core sent their final rejections. Columbia has cut every single preceptor job from the College’s flagship courses.

Fresh off bribing Trump, Columbia is now taking a sledgehammer to its graduate programs. If this succeeds, only grads independently wealthy enough will remain. I’m sure Chris Rufo knew some schools would cave easily, but I doubt he anticipated that one would enthusiastically take his side.

In 1968, Columbia suspended 73 students for protesting Columbia’s investment in war and theft of Harlem land. More than half the suspensions were reversed. Public pressure WORKS! We can do it, too. tinyurl.com/cupopuni-let...

“Not filling the Core preceptorships would be a tremendous loss both for graduate students in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and for all undergraduates who take classes in the Core.” - Joanna Stalnacker, former Chair of Literature Humanities at Columbia Read more from The Columbia Spectator

[BREAKING] Since May, Columbia admin has been secretly working to eliminate graduate teaching jobs while negotiating with SWC for a new contract. Out of ~200 instructor jobs in a regular year, we know of only ~10 that have been appointed.

SWC is not the only union targeted by Columbia during contract negotiations. We are appalled at Barnard’s firing of 77 workers, including union siblings of UAW local 2110. The mass layoff impacts the livelihoods of workers as well as Barnard and Columbia's educational mission.

These cuts are the latest reprehensible anti-union tactic from the fascists in the Columbia administration. It's doubtful I would have finished my PhD without a teaching appointment in the core from 2003-06. Also, helping to organize a strike for union recognition in Spring 2004 changed my life.