Join SWC’s Fight for A Fair Contract

We need a fair contract.

In 2021, we went on a historic ten-week strike to win our first ever contract, which included major wins such as raises of up to 33%, the option for dental/vision coverage, recognition of all student workers as employees, and protections against harassment and bullying.

We’re proud of the contract we won through collective action. But there is plenty we haven’t won yet, especially as our community’s needs have changed over the last four years.

SWC’s first contract expired at the end of May 2025. We are now mounting a new campaign for a successor contract that responds to soaring inflation, rent hikes, and federal attacks on our non-citizen members, among other concerns.

Read on for our list of demands. We make all our decisions democratically, which means some demands have not yet been approved in membership meetings and therefore do not yet appear on this page.

Our Demands

Below is a list of public demands. Because Columbia has refused to come to the bargaining table, not all of our demands are public yet. We will update this webpage with the complete list of demands as our membership votes to make them public. In the meantime, card signers may access the complete, members-only list of demands by requesting access to this Google Doc.

Protections for International Student Workers

  • Minimal-legal sharing: Ensure that international student information is not shared with the Department of Homeland Security beyond what is legally required

  • Re-establish Columbia as a “Sanctuary Campus”

  • Protect international student jobs and do everything possible to help international students facing issues entering the US or facing deportation threats

  • Academic continuity: In the case that an international student cannot stay in the US, Columbia will make accommodations to ensure that they are still able to complete their work and work towards their degree

  • Provide additional resources for international students:

    • Columbia will provide an immigration lawyer and an accountant available to all international students free of charge

    • English Language Learners (ELL) services will also be available to international students and dependents free of charge

    • The University will reimburse any associated international student fees, and will establish a hardship fund for international students facing financial burden

    • International students will be allowed to use the full 12 months of CPT allotted to them by USCIS

    • Flights will be reimbursed for international students who have to return home (or to a safe third location)

Workplace Safety

Eliminate Public Safety’s power to harm our community.

  • Public Safety officers must not be empowered to use force, arrest people, or forcibly remove them from University property. They must not require anyone to remove a face or head covering. Refusing to present University officials with any form of identification cannot subject a person to disciplinary action

  • Public Safety must not carry firearms, tasers, lethal weapons, or less-than-lethal weapons, or store them in any office or building

  • Transparent misconduct procedures to hold Public Safety accountable to the community. Public Safety must publish a descriptive list of all misconduct complaints of past and present employees on their website

  • Document request system for internal communications and surveillance files

  • Publish all external reviews conducted of Public Safety

  • Grant SWC a permanent seat on the Inclusive Public Safety Advisory Committee (IPSAC)

  • Maintain an organizational chart with the power of each role in the Public Safety bureaucracy

  • Provide an itemized budget of expenditures made by Public Safety

Stop the surveillance.

  • Cease all ongoing surveillance through both electronic means and investigatory personnel. Do not initiate new information-collecting

  • No compulsory disclosure: The University cannot compel workers to disclose information about their social media profiles

  • Disconnect surveillance from professional discipline: Surveillance data can never be the sole grounds on which workers are disciplined. We must have access to any monitoring data prior to disciplinary procedures. Any information collected in violation of this contract will not be admissible evidence in disciplinary cases

Take cops off campus.

  • No cops on campus: Columbia must not allow state, local, or federal law enforcement on campus without a judicial warrant

  • No information sharing with local, state, and federal law enforcement without a judicial warrant. The University must notify the Union and affected workers if they are being compelled to share information by judicial warrant

  • Public Safety cannot coordinate with NYPD to guard entrances and exits to the University.

Reopen the gates.

  • Re-open College Walk to allow public access to campus

  • No workplace access blockages: Columbia cannot block workers or their dependents from accessing health care resources, research resources, or their workplace

  • End the ID surveillance: The University cannot force us to swipe our CUID to get into non-residential buildings

Fire private contractors.

  • Fire all private security contractors within six months of contract signature. All data collected and other planning documents used by private contractors must be destroyed

Grievance and Arbitration

We need substantive, speedy recourse.

  • Remove the statute of limitations on resolving cases of contract violations or grievances. Extend the timeline for escalating cases 

  • Use third parties to expand informal resolutions at the department level, removing decision-making power from University administrators 

  • Make Columbia pay for arbitrations they lose so they can’t drain union resources by making us pursue easily-won cases

Members may read the full list of demands – before they go public – by requesting access to this Google Doc >>