Fight Back Against Anti-Union Unfair Labor Practice Charges
In recent months, both Columbia University and far-right ideologues associated with National Right to Work, an anti-union group funded by the Koch brothers, have filed Unfair Labor Practice charges (“ULPs”) against Student Workers of Columbia.
Both groups’ charges attempt to overturn the “Columbia decision,” the 2016 NLRB decision that compels private colleges and universities to recognize graduate students as employees if they perform teaching or research labor.
This is an assault on our members’ right to unionize and our autonomy to choose the contract articles we bring to the bargaining table. It also affects the rights of workers across higher ed. It is part of a cynical ploy to delegitimize higher education and other institutions that promote the public good.
Click the links below for more information about ULPs and add your name to our open letter calling for solidarity against billionaires’ attacks on higher ed.
Learn more about ULPs
A ULP, or unfair labor practice charge, is a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging that one party has violated labor law. Anyone can file a ULP, but unions and employers are most likely to file charges. For example, SWC has the right to file a ULP charge when Columbia violates the contractual and legal rights guaranteed to student workers by violating workplace safety.
It is common for unions and their employers to file ULPs. If the NLRB rules in a petitioner’s favor, the most likely outcome of a ULP is that either side must cease the practice said to violate the contract.
The Trump administration’s anti-labor appointments to the NLRB created an opening for Columbia and far-right groups who want to destroy higher ed unions to file ULPs. Attempting to decertify unions was even recommended by Project 2025.
We feel confident that neither of the two groups who have filed ULPs against SWC have a good case — see more in the subsections below. But ultimately, our worker power rests in our organizing, not the NLRB. Use this website hub to organize your coworkers and build a bulwark of community support to keep our union strong.
Information on Columbia’s ULP
On August 8, 2025, CU labor relations sent a university-wide email informing the community that they filed an Unfair Labor Practice complaint against SWC. Columbia is alleging that SWC is committing an unfair labor practice by not bargaining with them and that we are conditioning bargaining on a non-mandatory subject.
Who is refusing to bargain in good faith?
As documented in our emails and Bargaining Blogs, we have worked hard to get the University to the table. For its part, the University has been threatening to file this complaint since our first bargaining session in March. This is consistent with the University’s strategy to paint us as irresponsible no matter what since we unionized in 2015.
An accurate appraisal shows that SWC attempted to go to the bargaining table eight times – nearly all of which Columbia canceled or didn’t show up to. Read the timeline here.
The timeline shows that Columbia has canceled, walked out of, or failed to appear at six out of eight bargaining sessions.
Here is a schedule of attempted bargaining sessions prior to Columbia filing the ULP:
MARCH 14. First scheduled bargaining session. Columbia fires SWC president the night before, then cancels.
MARCH 28. Second scheduled bargaining session (the first and only session in which Columbia shows up). Columbia walks out mid-session and refuses to bargain.
APRIL 14. Third scheduled bargaining session. One business day before the session, Columbia notifies SWC that they will refuse to allow any observers into the room (a regression from previous bargaining conditions). SWC asks to reschedule.
APRIL 25. Fourth attempted bargaining session scheduled. Columbia does not show up to the fourth scheduled bargaining session (on Zoom).
MAY 9. Fifth scheduled bargaining session. SWC books a neutral, off-campus location for bargaining, while Columbia attempts to bargain from their office. Both sides disagree. Columbia does not come to the neutral location.
JUNE 9. Sixth scheduled bargaining session. Columbia offers to bargain from a neutral location at the Interchurch Center, but pulls their offer when we confirm our President will attend. Both sides disagree on a location. Columbia does not attend.
JUNE 25. Seventh scheduled bargaining session. SWC sends a Zoom link. Columbia does not show up.
JUNE 26. Eighth scheduled bargaining session. SWC sends a Zoom link. Columbia does not show up.
Columbia has stonewalled attempts to extend the contract:
JULY 10. Columbia emails SWC their first and only proposal to extend our contract by a year. The extension includes a number of transparently unacceptable articles, including a real-wages pay decrease.
JULY 22. SWC emails Columbia a counter proposal that would extend the contract into the fall. SWC expects Columbia to schedule a bargaining session or return a new counter proposal, which is typical of bargaining. Columbia never provides a counter to SWC’s counter proposal.
Check the facts. When the University cancels, walks out, or refuses to show up to six out of eight scheduled bargaining sessions and won’t counter-offer SWC’s contract extension proposal, who is to blame?
What’s wrong with Columbia’s ULP?
The ULP claims range from the bizarre (that the Butler library protests were an SWC-masterminded “sit down strike”) to the legally dubious (that our contract forbids our current president from being in this role). Most concerning is the assertion that “The Union has…stated publicly that it seeks to bargain over subjects unrelated to employment.” What the University refers to here as “subjects unrelated to employment” are all the things that our members are demanding in order to make Columbia a safer workplace. Protections for international students amid ICE crackdowns, a limit to the use of armed police and campus safety officers on campus, and even basic guarantees of academic freedoms—all of these, Columbia is now alleging are illegal to bargain over, even though they are typical bargaining subjects and we have bargained over issues like Cops Off Campus before without issue.
We suspect that the intended audience of these claims is not our membership or the NLRB, but the wider public. This is why the University is now saying that terms they already agreed to in writing, like interim-suspended students joining negotiations, are outrageous requests.
Since then, we have initiated a bylaws amendment vote to make it simpler to meet with the University, as our original bylaws specified that all bargaining sessions must be available on Zoom for accessibility reasons. We expect Columbia to drop their ULP charge and are optimistic that we can begin bargaining in early October.
Resources and key links:
Take Action Against National Right to Work
What is “National Right to Work”?
The National Right to Work Committee was founded in 1955 to undermine labor rights by propagating “right to work” laws. These laws, which make “union shops” illegal, are meant to weaken, and ultimately, destroy unions. NRTW is allied with a consortium of libertarian and right-wing groups funded by the Koch brothers to undermine workers’ rights and fight provisions like minimum wage and social security.
We have no reason to believe the group calling itself ‘GRADS,’ which is backed by National Right to Work, was formed with the involvement of union members. NRTW is known for astroturfing campaigns because their plan to dismantle basic labor rights is widely unpopular.
Some of the positions taken by the Kochs, who fund NRTW, include the elimination of all taxes, repeal of social security, Medicare and Medicaid, and an end to all government programs they call “aid to the poor.”
But oil barons like the Koch brothers can’t stop SWC. In fact, they already tried and failed to attack SWC ten years ago: Back in 2016, National Right to Work filed a legal brief attempting to block the NLRB from recognizing our union. They lost, and Columbia has been forced to bargain with our union ever since. The NLRB decision also paved the way for student workers unions nationwide.
Now they have turned their focus to trying to repeal that very same NLRB decision, which forces Columbia to recognize us as a union.
Our fight against NRTW is mainly a communications battle. That’s why it’s so important that we talk to each other about what’s happening and use moments like these to clarify the nature of our fight. It is not only against National Right to Work but also against the right-wing attack on higher education and the extremely wealthy members of our board who call the shots at Columbia without input from students, faculty, or workers.
National Right to Work ULP FAQ
What does the “right to work” mean?
So-called “right to work” are laws or legal decisions that prohibit union security clauses, which either take the form of a “union shop,” where all employees at a given workplace are required to be in a union, or “agency shops,” where workers who benefit from the union but don’t wish to join pay a small fee to the union in lieu of dues. This means that while unions must represent all workers in a bargaining unit, including filing grievances, disciplinary representation, and organizing for better working conditions, open-shop unions have less dues and resources with which to do so. The purpose of right-to-work laws is to drain unions of resources so their capacity to organize is significantly weakened.
“Right to work” as a slogan has its origins in the segregationist South, where conservatives saw unions as a threat to Jim Crow policies and venues for racial integration. Most right-to-work states are in the South, but organizations like NRTW are trying to spread them to the whole country and throughout various industries.
Currently, workers in states that have “right to work” laws take home 3.2% less than those in states who don’t.
For more information, see resources from the Economic Policy Institute.
Who is NRTW?
The National Right to Work Committee was founded in 1955 in order to undermine organizing efforts across the U.S. and specifically propagate “right to work laws.” They are allied with a consortium of libertarian and right-wing groups funded by the Koch brothers to undermine workers’ rights and fight provisions like minimum wage and social security.
During the last Trump administration, NRTW played a key role in Janus v. AFSCME, a legal decision that made all public sector jobs “right to work.” The public sector has historically been both highly union-dense (32% as opposed to 6% in the private sector) and a bastion of stable, well-paying jobs for working-class Americans, especially minorities.
Currently, NRTW is fighting to eliminate the ability of all grad students to unionize. The foundation filed a ULP against the Cornell grad student union challenging the right of graduate students to have a union. We have reasons to believe that more ULPs will be filed across multiple higher-ed unions.
Why are they filing ULPs and organizing against us?
NRTW aims to prevent union security articles and new unions from forming. We currently have an open-shop, which means that we have to spend a lot of our time signing up new members rather than collectively solving our problems together. We want to change that in our next contract, while groups like NRTW want to make union-shop illegal.
They are also hostile to social justice unionism, which is why they are trying to paint our demands around surveillance and workplace safety as “radical,” despite these being mandatory subjects of bargaining. Despite this group’s claims, our bargaining demands reflect the issues we face in our daily working conditions. 91% of respondents to the Bargaining starting position survey, conducted earlier this year, asked for these demands.
NRTW also wants to help Columbia in their campaign against us. They’re seeking to file as many ULP’s as possible against grad student unions in order to overturn the NLRB decision that gives us the right to have a union.
Charges like these are part of the anti-union plan laid out in Project 2025, which includes recommendations to decertify unions (p. 167) and passage of “right to work” laws that prohibit collective bargaining agreements from requiring workers at unionized workplaces to pay member dues (p. 605).
How can members help?
If you receive an email from an organization called ‘GRADS’ – what National Right to Work is calling itself on our campus – mark it spam. Tagging email spam makes it harder for them to message other members who didn’t opt into their list. You should also forward the email to info@studentworkersofcolumbia.com so we can track who has received it.
Sign and share this open letter with coworkers, family, and friends demanding that billionaires stop attacking higher ed unions. NRTW has filed a similar ULP at Cornell, and others are likely to come soon. A sector-wide threat against higher ed demands a sector-wide response.
Let’s show National Right to Work that we won’t be intimidated: help us sign 100 new members by mid-October.
How can community members help?
Use these resources to show your solidarity with SWC – whether you’re a card signer or a community member, we’re counting on your support!
Show National Right to Work we won’t be intimidated by helping us meet our goal of signing 100 new members in the next 30 days.
Send our member pledge form to any student enrolled at any Columbia school who does teaching or research labor. Undergraduates and students who perform hourly work (e.g. hourly research assistants) are part of the union, too!
In the news
News is always coming in! Here is recent coverage of our fight to defend labor rights in higher ed.
Selected coverage:
Labor Notes, “Columbia Tries to Undermine Its Unions, Hire Scab Instructors.” Jenny Brown, August 13, 2025
“Admin is using every tactic at its disposal to overwhelm our membership—cutting jobs & spreading misinformation. [Columbia] is paying union avoidance lawyers thousands of dollars an hour to play these games.”