A powerful union representing some of Columbia University’s custodians plans to sue the Ivy League school after a handful of staffers were allegedly mistreated when an unruly mob of anti-Israel protesters took over an academic building during last week’s on-campus unrest.
The Transport Workers Union, which counts university workers among its 155,000 members, ripped Columbia’s embattled president Minouche Shafik for failing to better protect employees when masked pro-terror rioters broke in and barricaded themselves inside the historic Hamilton Hall last Tuesday.
“This is appalling, disgusting and we are not going to stop until we figure out every means of legal recourse,” the union’s president, John Samuelsen, told The Post on Tuesday.
“Frankly, Columbia cannot be relied upon to protect their blue collar workers.”
The looming legal action, first reported on by Politico, comes after at least two Columbia custodians and a security officer were on shift when the mob violently stormed into the building, padlocked doors and blocked off entrances with metal barricades, tables and chairs.
Dramatic images from inside the building showed one of Columbia’s maintenance crew members clashing with a masked protester.
Samuelsen — whose union’s local branch reps more than 700 Columbia staffers, including custodians, security guards and electricians — railed against the school’s prez for waiting too long to send in the NYPD to break up the violence.
In a letter fired off to Shafik late Monday, the union boss alleged staffers trying to flee the building were told by at least one “smarmy, sanctimonious, elitist … occupier” that “this moment is bigger than you.”
The custodians had to “courageously fight” their way through a barricaded exit, according to Samuelsen.
The female security officer who was on shift managed to get out of the building as protesters were sealing themselves inside — but she is still “shaken” by her encounter with “the occupying protesters (aka privileged kids) who verbally attacked her in a very aggressive” manner, he added.
“There is no doubt that the university was aware that outside agitators were operating on campus and posed an increased risk to university employees, yet the university continued to assign their work routines as if it was ‘business as usual’,” Samuelsen wrote in the letter.
“President Shakif, imagine for a moment being in the boots of the blue-collar custodians and security officer. 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,” he added.
The union honcho is calling on Shafik to meet with him to discuss compensation for the staffers, as well as demanding the school hand over any footage from inside the building.
Samuelsen has asked, too, for a breakdown of students and “outside agitators” who were arrested during the saga.
“It’s not only Columbia, we are in the middle of identifying all the people who occupied Hamilton Hall, who were not only students,” he told The Post.
“How outrageous how an ideological agitator would feel so entitled to press a blue collar custodian into their cause.”
In total, the NYPD said they cuffed 109 protesters at Columbia during the Hamilton Hall takeover.
Mayor Eric Adams revealed last week, citing arrest data, that nearly half of those nabbed weren’t students.
Columbia University didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.