Graduate student group argues union bosses are illegally using bad faith bargaining to demand political concessions from Columbia administration

New York, NY (September 22, 2025) – The Graduate Researchers Against Discrimination and Suppression (GRADS), a group of graduate students at Columbia University, has just filed federal charges against officials of the Student Workers of Columbia, a union on campus affiliated with the United Auto Workers (UAW). GRADS filed its charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.

The members of GRADS, who have requested anonymity due to widespread harassment stemming from union agitation on campus, are charging the union with abusing its monopoly bargaining powers. They contend that union officials are bargaining in bad faith to extract concessions from the university on a number of radical policy proposals, instead of focusing on improving graduate students’ academic and research environment.

The NLRB’s controversial 2016 decision in Columbia University categorized graduate students at private universities as “employees” subject to federal labor law. In doing so, the Obama NLRB granted union bosses the ability to launch campus unionization campaigns and gain monopoly bargaining power over graduate students. Under monopoly bargaining, every employee in a work unit must accept the workplace “representation” of union bosses, even if they voted against the union or disagree with its agenda.

While federal law conditions union bosses’ monopoly bargaining powers on a nebulous “duty of fair representation,” union officials often ignore this duty and discriminate against those who oppose the union’s control.

Charges: UAW Union Demands University Take Action Against Israel, Crack Down on Police

GRADS’ charges list a number of outrageous bargaining items from UAW union officials, including: “proposals to force Columbia to limit campus police, security, and NYPD from doing their jobs;” “bargain[ing] over…so-called ‘Boycott, Divest & Sanction’ policies…of the entire university;” “termination of a dual-degree program between Columbia and Tel Aviv University;” and undoing discipline for students who have been suspended for “destroy[ing] campus property and disrupt[ing] the unit’s working conditions for extended periods.”

“These and similar actions constitute bad faith bargaining…and violate the duty of fair representation that respondent union owes to all represented graduate students,” the charges state.

Foundation attorneys are defending a number of other graduate students who seek to resist the radical – and often discriminatory – ways that union officials are wielding their monopoly bargaining powers on campus. Foundation attorneys are currently representing Jewish students at Cornell University in challenging the CGSU-UE union’s failure to respect their rights as religious objectors to union affiliation. Another Cornell student is pursuing a Foundation-backed case attacking union officials’ bargaining powers granted in the questionable 2016 Columbia University ruling.

“Far from facilitating a more harmonious relationship between graduate students and the Columbia administration, UAW union bosses are simply ramping up radical extremism at a university that has already seen more than its share of chaos,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “While it’s wrong from the start that any student is forced to accept union boss ‘representation’ they oppose, it’s even less acceptable that UAW union officials are trying to use their monopoly bargaining privileges to enforce their divisive politics on the entire campus, including undergraduate students.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.