Updated

Updated · The Jerusalem Post · Jul 31

Columbia Student Workers' Union Drops Israel Divestment Demand as University Opens Tel Aviv Center

Updated

Updated · The Jerusalem Post · Jul 31

Columbia Student Workers' Union Drops Israel Divestment Demand as University Opens Tel Aviv Center

Q: What did Columbia’s student union gain by dropping divestment from Israel during contract talks?

By dropping the Israel divestment demand, Columbia’s student workers union mainly gained negotiating flexibility and a better chance of advancing its core labor goals. Union leaders said the move was a strategic concession made to “face the realities” of bargaining. In practice, that meant narrowing the contract agenda and moving away from a politically charged issue that Columbia had argued was outside the scope of mandatory labor negotiations. By removing that demand, the union could focus more directly on issues the university is more likely to bargain over, such as wages, benefits, childcare, health care, protections for international students, and workplace conditions. The withdrawal also appears to have helped keep contract talks moving. Reports said the union had already reached tentative agreements on several contract articles while dropping multiple proposals. That suggests the union gained progress at the table, even if it gave up a high-profile political demand. What it did not gain was any divestment commitment from Columbia. Rather, the benefit was procedural and strategic: a narrower platform, fewer obstacles in bargaining, and an improved chance of winning a contract the union considered fair.

3 articles · Updated · The Jerusalem Post · Jul 31

Student Workers of Columbia-UAW withdrew its demand Tuesday that Columbia divest from Israel, a sharp reversal for a union that helped drive the campus pro-Palestinian protest movement during the Gaza war.
Grant Miner, the union's president, told the Columbia Spectator the concession reflected bargaining realities, saying the campaign had to confront "where you are" at the negotiating table.
Columbia's shift comes as the university prepares to open its Tel Aviv global center this summer, a project first announced in April 2023 that had already drawn competing faculty letters.
The developments land against a wider New York backdrop of antisemitism concerns, including a hate-crime indictment in last week's Upper West Side stabbing and a new Irvington graffiti investigation.