11/7/2025 Non-Citizen Student Worker Rights, Health & Safety, Grievance & Arbitration, and More
After months of stalling and attempting to pick which SWC representatives they would meet, Columbia finally met with SWC on November 7th with our bargaining team and in-person member observers. This was our second session of the contract campaign and our first since March. SWC presented articles on non-citizen student worker rights, health and safety in the workplace, and improving the current grievance procedures. These three articles had already been delivered to the University on October 6th, giving them nearly a full month to review them beforehand.
Unfortunately, the University was not prepared to respond. The Bargaining Committee presented the three articles and provided member testimony for each. We also pushed the University to address the urgent needs of our members by asking if they plan to extend the health fund and withdraw recent disciplinary warnings for picketing.
Below are the main takeaways from bargaining today.
Response to Articles
CU refused to substantively engage with our articles, despite BC’s insistence. Representatives did not respond to the content of our non-citizen student worker rights article at all.
Columbia dismissed demands for a safe campus free from Public Safety’s violence and threats to non-citizens as “not appropriate” for a collective bargaining agreement and said an employer would “never” consider demands like these in a CBA. However, Non-Citizen Student Rights is an updated version of our existing international student workers article, and Health & Safety is a mandatory subject of bargaining.
The university’s representatives looked away while a member testified about Columbia University and DHS collaborating to terminate her enrollment and deport her.
They ignored a member's testimony about the brutality she experienced at the hands of Public Safety’s Special Patrol officers. The University granted PS arrest power this spring after a deal with the Trump administration. CU would not affirm that PS physically assaulting students was wrong.
Health Fund
Columbia’s team refused to say whether the university planned to extend the health fund during negotiations, but intended for it to be in our next contract.
The Vice President of HR, Dan Driscoll, said he could ask Columbia administrators if they would extend the health fund as a “student benefit,” meaning the University would have unilateral control over who accesses the benefit/how much the fund is. The university refused to consider continuing to offer the fund as an employee benefit, as Columbia has for years.
They implied that the health fund may be held hostage until we sign a successor Collective Bargaining Agreement. As a reminder, the expiry of our contract does not require the University to stop paying out the health fund.
Illegal Union Busting
We confronted the University about members wrongly receiving disciplinary warning letters for participating in protected union activity. The University responded, saying, “we are not prohibiting picketing.” They failed to explain how the warning letters did not violate our rights to protected activity.
We also asked: How are student workers being identified? Is there any surveillance, CCTV footage used to ID workers engaging in peaceful activities? We also asked CU as a show of good faith that CU rescind these letters. They refused to answer.
CU’s lawyer admitted that College Walk is “public,” an argument which he used to justify why they didn’t need to disclose how they identified our members.
What’s Next?
Our next session will be on November 24th at 1pm. You can RSVP to observe bargaining here. If more availability at Sockman Lounge in Interchurch opens up, or the University is able to provide a suitable alternate bargaining location accessible to all SWC members, we would be excited to meet sooner.
Columbia Student Workers should continue talking to their colleagues about our contract demands, and attending future mass meetings where we will collectively strategize on our next steps. Faculty can join our supporters’ mailing list for more updates and information on future Faculty Town Halls.
Details for all our future meetings and events are posted on our calendar: https://www.studentworkersofcolumbia.com/calendar