Although labor rights at public universities are determined by state law and aren’t affected by the Columbia decision, the massive strike at the UC system has had a spillover effect across workers in higher education, said Todd Wolfson, a Rutgers professor and vice-president of the union representing graduate student workers, postdoctoral associates, and faculty at the university.
“They exist in the same ecosystem,” said Wolfson, who also serves as the interim chair of Higher Ed Labor United, an organization that formed in 2021. “The strike is absolutely an object lesson and it mobilizes people. It’s part of the larger wave of worker militancy that’s impacting higher education.”
READ: Robert Iafolla in Bloomberg Law: “Yale Union Election Is Latest Move in Campus Labor Renaissance“