The Student Workers of Columbia (SWC) claim that the administration has surveilled and threatened union members for participating in a practice demonstration on October 17, “flouting the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and explicitly extending its suppression of free speech to labour action.”

On October 17, SWC members participated in a practice picket on College Walk, in which picketers demanded a fair contract that includes “reopening the University’s campus to the public, ending Columbia Public Safety’s violent policing, and ceasing workplace surveillance.” 

A week later, on October 24, University Rules Administrator Gregory Wawro issued warning letters to at least 20 SWC members for participating in the practice picket, according to an SWC statement. “Although these letters did not impose punishments, they threatened that the University will retain a record of this warning to be referenced in the event of a future Rules-related incident,” the Union wrote.  

SWC leaders maintain that Columbia’s warnings will not stop the Union from continuing to exercise its legally protected right to picket. They argue that the University’s actions constitute retaliation for legally protected activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which safeguards workers’ rights to organize and picket. A video of the October 17 practice picket posted to the SWC Instagram account depicts union members being told that “this [the practice picket] does not fall under those guidelines,” despite citing the NLRA statute to University employees who tried to halt the practice picket.

The union’s statement compares public safety officers’ treatments of SWC picketers to the treatment against pro-Palestine protestors earlier this year, stating that the University has begun to “suppress labor rights using the same tactics developed to persecute pro-Palestine protests.”

The Union’s statement also criticizes how Columbia allowed for officers to arrest protestors and increase surveillance as a result of the University’s agreement with the Trump administration to reinstate some of the $400 million in federal funding that was canceled earlier this year. SWC believes that Columbia has tightened campus protest rules, nominally exempting protected labor activity, but threatening retaliation in practice. 

SWC will negotiate over relevant contract articles with the University bargaining team on Friday, November 7 at 1 pm at the Interchurch Center.  

This is a developing story. Bwog will provide updates as more information becomes available. 

Low via Bwog Archives