Posts tagged Boycott Divestment and Sanctions
Union accused of forcing Jewish students at MIT, Stanford, and Cornell to fund pro-Hamas agenda
August 12, 2025 // At MIT, following the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, the UE affiliate supported campus protests favoring Hamas, the letter states. Five Jewish graduate students requested religious accommodations to avoid paying dues to the union, citing conflicts with their faith. UE General Secretary-Treasurer Andrew Dinkelaker reportedly denied the requests, saying, “no principles, teachings, or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees to a labor union.” At Stanford, three graduate students faced similar challenges. Their requests for accommodations were met with what the letter calls an “abusive” questionnaire, which the union dropped after legal pressure.
Opinion: Why Trump’s anti-Semitism crackdown should worry UC union
February 23, 2025 // Following President Trump’s executive order to combat anti-Semitism came reports that his administration has opened investigations at five U.S. universities — including at UC Berkeley. There is, unfortunately, plenty to uncover from violent student groups to passive university administrators. But investigators would be wise to also examine the role unions have played. My own lawsuit against the United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents 48,000 employees across the UC system, should be enough to raise alarm bells. At UC Berkeley, where I am a postdoc, campus administrators were poised to break up a post-October 7, anti-Israel encampment, when the union came to its rescue. The encampment prominently displayed the inverted red triangle—the Hamas symbol used in violent propaganda videos to target Israelis—and banners reading “Glory to the martyrs” and “Student Intifada.” That didn’t deter UAW officials, who legitimized the protest by establishing a “union village” within it.
Jewish MIT Graduate Students Force Anti-Israel Union to Abandon Discriminatory Demands for Dues Payment
August 21, 2024 // everal Jewish graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have prevailed in their legal cases to cut off financial support to the MIT Graduate Student Union (GSU), an affiliate of the United Electrical (UE) union. The students, all of whom received free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, objected to GSU union officials’ anti-Israel activities, particularly their support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Student Activists Are Turning Their Attention to the Labor Movement
June 22, 2023 // Last year, the Young Democratic Socialists of America’s Red Hot Summer program trained hundreds of young people to organize their workplaces and helped launch union drives representing thousands. This year’s program hopes to be even bigger, writes YDSA’s cochair. Student workers across the country are engaged in an unprecedented wave of labor organization. Spurred on by the support of organizations like the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), of which I am cochair, undergraduate student workers have launched union drives on nearly thirty public and private campuses in the United States. These workers are fighting for increased pay, improvements to scheduling and hours, sick pay, and better health care. They are also fighting for issues that go beyond bread and butter, like removing Israeli products from dining halls.