Last week, I was expelled from @Columbia for protesting the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza. As president of @SW_Columbia , Columbia’s student workers union, I was also fired from my job. The Trump administration is pushing their narrative. Here’s the real story. 🧵.

Those billions of dollars aren’t a “separate fund.” They’re not giving you secret knowledge, they’re swatting your hand away from the cookie jar!.

What do you want to know?.

Many faculty buy into presentations from their colleagues about hard financial realities hook, line, and sinker because they think they’re important enough to get “the real info” about cuts. Unfortunately, you are not! The money IS there — it’s just being given to someone else.

Our non-tenured colleagues who teach many of these classes are already reporting mandatory class size increases across the board. When you expel the undergrads, don’t train the graduates, and overwork the faculty, who will want to live, work, and study at Columbia?.

RT @SW_Columbia: Welcome home, Mahmoud!.

RT @ColumbiaBDS: Claire Shitman keeps lying about the Palestine movement on campus and pandering to fascists. But we’ve got the receipts. I….

RT @SEIU: BREAKING: Rümeysa, our union sister who was snatched by ICE, is free today. We stood up for our union family and demanded justice….

Claire Shipman just blamed protestors for endangering international students by “making our institution a target.” This is pretty rich from someone who lets DHS search residence halls and disappear students. Concerned? How about working to free Mahmoud?.

RT @SW_Columbia: Today, Columbia “peace officers” and NYPD kettled and brutalized nearly 100 people of conscience who reclaimed Butler Libr….

RT @SW_Columbia: Next, Mahmoud! ✊.

If you want to learn what's really happening at bargaining, be sure to follow our bargaining blog here:

Don't be fooled by this. At any other workplace we would recognize this for what it is: they fired a union leader and banned me from the workplace. This is a classic union-busting technique, and we need to see it as such. Our status as students has no bearing on our rights.

They also left out that we tried multiple times to offer other locations. Each time, they said they would only bargain in the building they've banned me from — this is THEM conditioning bargaining, not us. Whether it's this or open bargaining, it's their way or nothing.

It's true we have a Bargaining Committee elected by the rank and file of our union, but no case law says that only those elected members are allowed in bargaining. After all, unions hire lawyers who come to bargaining and who aren't members of the union. We get to choose.

We also have a contractual right to have representatives on campus for union business. Now Columbia is also saying they get to choose who they let on campus. As during our last negotiations, Columbia wants to treat us as students, not workers, and we won't stand for it.

The National Labor Relations Act says: "Employees shall have the right . to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing" — that's it! Our workers chose me and our VP (who Columbia conveniently leaves out) as two such representatives. The rules are clear.

They say my presence makes "good faith" bargaining impossible, but won't say why. During our last session, they tried to get into a closed meeting with just me (I refused), so clearly that's not the case. Just like our last negotiations "good faith" means "do what what we say".

To clear something up, I remain the President of SWC. Columbia doesn't get to decide who our officers are, and they certainly don't get to do so by firing them. They are already trying to cause confusion about the "legitimacy" of my position by banning me from bargaining.

Today @Columbia illegally barred me and our VP from the bargaining table. In addition to deporting students, it seems union busting is another thing Columbia and Trump can agree on! Do you want to live in a country where your boss gets to decide who your union reps are?.

Columbia has ignored the demands of its students, faculty, and wider community for too long. Our union is taking a stand against the persecution of international students and the rampant policing of our students and coworkers.

@nodutdol is collecting letters for Yunseo and helping to run a campaign in her support, please help them out! .