Protesters gather at the gates of Columbia University, in support of student protesters who barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall, in New York City, US, April 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado

An anti-Zionist campaign embedded in Columbia University’s graduate-student labor negotiations suffered a major defeat this week when the union withdrew a proposal aimed at forcing the school to divest from companies linked to Israel.

Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers Local 2710 withdrew its “Obligations Under International Law” contract proposal during negotiations Tuesday, abandoning one of the most politically charged demands in its sprawling bargaining platform.

The proposal would have required Columbia to divest from and refrain from contracting with entities deemed complicit in violations of international law—a provision the university described as mandatory support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel.

The withdrawal does not necessarily eliminate every anti-Israel demand advanced by the union. Columbia previously said SWC had separately sought to prevent the university from opening its Global Center in Tel Aviv. Neither the university nor the union said Tuesday that proposal had also been withdrawn.

SWC acknowledged that dropping the divestment proposal was a strategic concession needed to advance negotiations over wages, benefits, and protections for foreign students.

“The Union recognizes the importance that internationalist demands have carried for membership,” SWC said. “However, after seeking input from members through working groups and GBM votes, we have determined at this time that withdrawal is strategic in terms of our broader contract campaign and was a necessary step on the way to winning a fair contract.”

Frankie Tavares, an English and comparative literature doctoral candidate and member of SWC’s bargaining committee, similarly acknowledged that the union had been forced to narrow its agenda.

“A lot of what has been happening at the table has been us dropping some articles, moving closer to the university, holding strong on certain demands, but ultimately moving forward in our contract campaign towards a set of demands that are narrower,” Tavares told the Columbia Spectator.

Tavares described the retreat as “a natural part of the bargaining process,” in which unions begin with a broad slate of proposals before confronting “the realities of what the university is willing to give us.”

SWC has now tentatively agreed to eight contract articles and withdrawn 10 proposals, according to the Spectator. The parties nevertheless remain far apart over the major economic and workplace provisions of a successor contract.

The union’s previous contract expired on June 30, 2025. Formal bargaining did not begin until November following months of procedural disputes, including a confrontation over the participation of expelled former union president Grant Miner.

Since then, negotiations have covered traditional labor issues—including compensation, health care, childcare, leave, and disciplinary protections—alongside demands concerning Israel, immigration enforcement, campus police, surveillance cameras, protest discipline, and Columbia’s academic operations.

Columbia has repeatedly argued that many of those proposals concern academic or operational authority rather than student workers’ conditions of employment and are therefore outside the scope of mandatory collective bargaining. SWC disputes the university’s interpretation of the bargaining framework.

The union authorized a strike in March, with 91.5 percent of participating members voting in favor. However, the UAW’s national leadership subsequently declined to authorize a spring walkout. SWC has not formally scheduled a fall strike, although organizers have continued preparing for the possibility if negotiations fail.

The bargaining fight has also produced an internal revolt among graduate students who accuse SWC’s leadership of subordinating workplace concerns to a radical political agenda.

Graduate Researchers Against Discrimination and Suppression, an anonymous organization known as Columbia GRADS, filed an unfair labor practice charge against SWC with the National Labor Relations Board in September 2025 and amended it in April.

The group alleged that the union had bargained in bad faith by devoting excessive attention to nonemployment issues, including divestment from Israel, closing Columbia’s Tel Aviv programs, restricting cooperation with law enforcement, removing security cameras, and establishing “sanctuary” protections for undocumented immigrants.

Columbia GRADS further alleged that the UAW had instructed the local to withdraw some of the proposals and refused to authorize a strike over issues outside mandatory collective bargaining. Those allegations remain claims made by the complainants and have not been adjudicated by the NLRB.

The Columbia retreat comes as anti-Israel activists make gains elsewhere in organized labor.

Delegates at the UAW’s constitutional convention in Detroit voted 321-287 in June to divest the union from all Israel bonds, ending a decades-old investment that once symbolized organized labor’s support for the Jewish state. The union reportedly holds approximately $400,000 in the bonds.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Education is investigating the New York City public-school system over allegations involving NYC Educators for Palestine, a group of teachers that organized seminars on “Palestine, Zionism, and Resistance.”

Federal officials said complaints alleged that educators taught children that Zionists are “genocidal white supremacists” and promoted support for Hamas terrorists as “martyrs.” The investigation concerns the city Education Department’s potential failure to prevent a hostile environment for Jewish students; it is not formally an investigation of the United Federation of Teachers.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.