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.

Really upsetting news. I myself had a Core preceptorship as a late stage PhD student at Columbia. @asheeshksi.bsky.social and @theotherjude.bsky.social did you see

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.

Columbia is now officially rolling out cuts and outright elimination of various graduate teaching positions. Not only does this destroy professional education, but also leaves later-year Ph.D.’s without funding.

🧵 Dozens of NY Elected Officials Sign Letters in Support of Striking UAW Legal Services: Approximately 1,850 of the 2,000 legal services workers represented by ALAA-UAW Local 2325 reached tentative agreements last week following powerful strike actions and sustained public pressure.

This week, Columbia University announced their $200 million deal with the Trump administration. This is a sobering moment for the future of higher education 🧵 1/4

Out today in the Columbia Spectator — faculty from CUIMC Stands Up & CU Faculty Alliance reframe the narrative about antisemitism at Columbia through an analysis of the HEALS data. Read it here ⬇️ www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2025...

“I’ve never heard of anything like this in K-12 or higher education. The full scope of the monitor’s role is not even clear. Will this person be policing what is taught? Who is hired? Who is admitted? This is dangerous.”

On July 10th, CU sent us a 1 year contract extension crafted to weaken labor power. Our membership caucused and voted to send a counterproposal. CU must address our needs during NY’s affordability crisis, federal threats to international students, and cuts to our jobs.

Among the 80 students suspended or expelled from Columbia are 5 SWC members, who will soon lose both their jobs and healthcare. Once again, Columbia chooses to support war and Trump admin over its own students and workers. It's up to us, not the bosses, to defend our community.

if you're an academic—especially if you're in the NYC area—please read and sign this open letter, a pledge against replacing union labor at Columbia. the university has a frustratingly long, lurid history of union-busting; take no part in it.

Columbia University is attempting to remove critical teaching work from the @swcolumbia.bsky.social bargaining unit. Please sign this petition against management's union busting.

The UFW can confirm farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County, CA. Other workers, including US citizens, remain unaccounted for. UFW staff is on the ground supporting impacted families. Our full statement below. ⬇️ 1/

Columbia is replacing union labor as we negotiate a new contract. Admin is emailing other universities to recruit teachers, while refusing to reappoint returning SWC instructors, who still don't know if they will teach or get paid in September. This is textbook union busting

"I am proud to stand with these workers as they fight for a contract that honors their sacrifice and unwavering commitment to justice." @newyorkstateag.bsky.social in solidarity with @lasattysunited.bsky.social, UAW 2325, @uawregion9a.bsky.social

Columbia is attempting to expel SWC members for joining a teach-in on Palestine honoring Basel al-Araj, a Palestinian revolutionary and teacher at the Popular University in the West Bank. Stand with student workers fighting to keep their jobs. tinyurl.com/cupopuni-let...

extremely glad mine (UAW) got it right whew

Up at dawn to win a new day.

Mahmoud Khalil emerges from airport security with his wife Noor and newborn, legal team and Rep. AOC.

Mahmoud Khalil is free.

Welcome home, Mahmoud!

New Yorkers: Rank Zohran #1 for Mayor. Zohran fights for the working class, not the billionaire class. www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0xL...