Overview
- The Student Workers of Columbia–UAW voted this week to withdraw a contract clause that would have forced Columbia to divest from entities tied to alleged international-law violations, reframing the concession as a tactical move to advance a successor contract.
- Union negotiators have also dropped or slimmed other high-profile political proposals, including a proposal to remove all campus police and a broad surveillance restriction, while tentatively agreeing to several employment-related contract articles.
- Columbia has maintained that divestment and many academic or institutional issues fall outside mandatory collective bargaining and has accused the union of bargaining in bad faith over some demands.
- The union represents more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate student workers; members authorized a strike in March but no new walkout date has been set and the UAW national declined to authorize a spring strike.
- The retreat follows earlier university and advisory-panel rejections of formal divestment bids and comes as Columbia moves forward with a Tel Aviv Global Center, a development that could limit what campus activism can win through contract talks.