6/9/25 Columbia sabotages bargaining meeting — again

In what is becoming a consistent pattern, Columbia University once again sabotaged a meeting with the SWC bargaining team, which had been tentatively planned for the afternoon of June 9th, because they insist on controlling which members of our negotiating team are allowed into the bargaining room. The University’s behavior is illegal, inconsistent and, unfortunately, completely unsurprising. 

SWC remains disappointed that, in a time of increased repression on worker rights, Columbia University continues to make unreasonable and arbitrary demands on bargaining conditions. Since our first session at the end of March, the University has only ignored our objections and good faith attempts to identify mutually agreeable solutions. 

Making arbitrary demands on our bargaining team is not only illegal, but an easy way to avoid negotiating over issues that matter to our workers. In their latest communication, the University has already attempted to shirk its responsibility to non-citizen and international student workers by claiming that immigration issues are not relevant to our contract. On June 2, Columbia HR wrote this message to faculty:

“The union, like other individuals and groups, is free to speak and to advocate in relation to [federal immigration policies], but these subjects are independent of terms and conditions that are the subject of labor bargaining.” 

Our current contract addresses disruptions to the immigration status of international student workers. 

Article 26 protects student workers’ employment status should they encounter problems with their immigration status out of their control. The Article provides for instances in which a student worker cannot return to the U.S. to complete their duties remotely and/or to make reasonable efforts to re-employ a worker once their status has been restored. 

The University has already failed in this regard. When SWC member and Teaching Assistant Ranjani Srinivasan was forced to flee the U.S. by ICE, Columbia unnecessarily disenrolled her. Out of over 1700 people who unlawfully lost their visa status, Ranjani is the only student who was also disenrolled from her institution. Columbia went above and beyond to abandon its own student, and now they are claiming that this is not a relevant workplace issue. 

SWC is fighting for better wages, increased benefits for workers and their dependents, adequate healthcare, a safe work environment, and protections for international student workers, among other pressing issues. But Columbia is dragging out bargaining by resorting to classic union busting delay tactics. Starbucks pulled the same exact thing in 2022, walking out on a bargaining session because union members participated by Zoom. 

We have made multiple attempts to request a neutral meeting location, a common practice in all kinds of negotiations. After refusing our attempts to discuss location over email initially, the University’s strategy of obstruction has now escalated. 

When Columbia’s negotiations team refused to leave Studebaker Hall, SWC sent a Zoom link. The University did not show up. SWC then proposed a neutral meeting location at the offices of the AFL-CIO’s New York City Central Labor Council, to which we have no affiliation. The University did not show up. For today, the University made the absurd suggestion to meet at its union avoidance lawyer’s office in the World Trade Center. (Who, by the way, was responsible for preventing student worker unionization at Penn and Drexel.) 

In a rare moment of self-awareness, the University dropped that suggestion and finally proposed the Interchurch Center in Morningside Heights. Although we indicated we were available to meet today, Columbia representatives continued to condition bargaining based on the presence of a particular union representative. When we refused to allow them to illegally exclude members of our negotiating team, they sent a last-minute email withdrawing their offer of a neutral location and demanding we meet in Studebaker, with no guarantee that all members of our team would be able to enter the building to bargain.

Attendance by the bargaining team of our own choosing is a position backed by the NLRA and ample NLRB precedent. Meanwhile, the University has cited no case law, only repeating without explanation spurious claims that the presence of our union president makes good faith bargaining “impossible.” Accepting these terms would set the unacceptable precedent that the University can bar union members from negotiations by subjecting them to arbitrary discipline. 

We are frustrated that a simple request for transparency has been met with intransigence.

SWC is ready to get to the table—with all of our bargaining team, to fight for all our members. Is Columbia University?