Columbia unions unite against Trump, university management

Unions representing more than 5,000 workers at Columbia are demanding the university stand up to the Trump administration’s attempts to control it.  In a letter sent last week to the university's president and co-chair of the board of trustees that listed 10 demands, three United Auto Workers locals implored Columbia's leadership to protect students and reinstate workers that have been expelled and terminated.

“We, the undersigned labor organizations at Columbia University, stand united in defense of our members and of the University itself,” the letter reads.  “We see the Trump administration's actions as a single aggression with a common goal: to silence opposition to the authoritarian regime emerging in Washington, to cripple and take control over universities, to wreck critical research, to erode our first amendment rights, and to disempower Columbia’s workers.”