On Saturday, around 40 members of Student-Worker Solidarity, a group of Columbia and Barnard students working for pay equality in the Columbia community, rallied alongside former restaurant workers at Indus Valley Restaurant on Broadway.

Here’s SWS’s official press release about the event:

For the third Saturday in a row, Columbia students protested alongside former employees of the popular Morningside Heights restaurant Indus Valley. Almost forty students and several workers held signs, distributed flyers, and raised awareness about the half a million dollars owed to the former delivery workers and dishwashers. The protest was organized by Student-Worker Solidarity (formerly known as Students Support Barnard Workers), a group of Columbia and Barnard students committed to fighting for fair working conditions for all workers.

The protest began at the main Columbia gates at 5:30pm, when students met to march down en masse to the restaurant. Once there, the students met up with the former Indus Valley employees and arrayed themselves outside of the restaurant with signs reading “Pay your workers!” and “People not profits!” The students and workers distributed information to passersby, and listened as the workers toldabout working conditions at Indus Valley, where they enduring slave wages, long hours, and physical abuse.

“Tonight’s protest shows that we aren’t going away until Phuman and Billa Singh pay their workers,” said Jamila Barra, BC ’13. “It also demonstrates the enormous power of students and workers fighting for justice together; the Columbia students who came out tonight understand that they actually can bring about real and meaningful change by participating in concrete political struggles.”

Student-Worker Solidarity is committed to putting pressure on Indus Valley until Phuman and Billa Singh agree to pay their workers. Sign the petition (www.tinyurl.com/payyourworkers) to show your support and like them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/StudentsSupportBarnardWorkers) to learn about upcoming actions.  You can also contact SWS via email.