The union representing Columbia University’s custodians is threatening to sue the Ivy League school for failing to protect its members during an anti-Israel demonstration, in which protesters temporarily barricaded themselves and some maintenance workers inside a campus building.
Transport Workers Union International president John Samuelsen ripped Columbia on Fox News Thursday morning, saying that union members were “particularly incensed at Columbia for not protecting the workers and particularly pissed at those particular protesters that tried to hold our workers” in Hamilton Hall last week.
Anti-Israel protesters overtook the academic building on April 30, clashing with at least two custodians and a security officer inside to protest the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Samuelsen said the union workers in the building were “fearful and rightfully so” after the mob stormed in, noting that “two of the custodians had to fight their way out.”
The union leader blamed the “bratty” protesters for preventing the university workers from returning to their families.
“They were explicitly told ‘you’re staying here, you’re not going anywhere, this cause is bigger than you,'” Samuelsen told Fox & Friends. “Imagine that . . . kind of smarmy, sort of entitled, spoiled, bratty occupiers of the building come in and tell these blue-collar men and women ‘you’re not going anywhere, you’re staying here because this cause is bigger than you’ when they had to get home to their families. It’s outrageous, it’s an affront to workers everywhere.”
“Columbia should have never put the custodians or the security officer in that position and that is at the heart of the matter,” he added. “Columbia showed an epic disregard and epically failed to protect the workforce.”
Police officers cleared out Hamilton Hall on the evening of April 30, after Columbia president Minouche Shafik called in the New York Police Department. Officers arrested about 50 people inside Hamilton Hall, many of whom were students. At least nine of the building occupiers were unaffiliated with the university, according to a review of police records conducted by the New York Times.
The union said in a statement on Tuesday it intends to pursue “legal action against the university and the Hamilton Hall occupiers.” When reached by National Review, a Columbia spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit threat.
On Monday, Samuelsen wrote a letter to Shafik about the “appalling mistreatment” of his members. He said that the union’s security officer escaped before the protesters blocked the building’s entrances with metal barricades, tables, and chairs. “But she remains shaken by her encounter with the occupying protesters (aka privileged kids) who verbally attacked her in a very aggressive and extremely offensive manner,” Samuelsen wrote.
“President Shafik, imagine for a moment being in the boots of the blue-collar Custodians and Security Officer,” he continued. “They came to work to earn a day’s pay so they could take care of their families and ended up being held against their will while being subjected to physical and verbal abuse. Imagine yourself coming to work and being the victim of a serious crime because Columbia University didn’t care enough about you to engage in common sense protective measures.”
In the two-page letter, Samuelsen demanded that Columbia release the names of the protesters who were arrested inside Hamilton Hall, grant the union access to security footage from the building, provide information about the “composition of the protesters,” and set up an immediate meeting between Shafik and union leaders.
The meeting will be used to determine mitigation steps to avoid similar incidents in the future, and to establish compensation for the union members “who were subjected to this despicable conduct,” the letter says.