Columbia University employees describe captivity by pro-Palestinian protesters.
NEW YORK — A prominent transit union leader plans to sue Columbia University over alleged mistreatment of school staffers during a building seizure last week — the latest labor group to wade into the debate surrounding campus unrest.
John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union — which represents 155,000 workers across the airline, transit, railroad, universities, utilities and service sectors — castigated Columbia President Minouche Shafik for waiting too long to authorize the NYPD to clear out Hamilton Hall after demonstrators occupied it last Tuesday night........
When the custodians told the demonstrators that they wanted to get out of the building, at least one “smarmy, sanctimonious, elitist ... occupier” — in a reference to the Gaza protests and takeover of Hamilton — told them they would not be able to exit premises because “this moment is bigger than you,” Samuelsen alleged in the letter.
The custodians had to then fight their way toward one of the barricaded exits to escape, he said.
The security officer, an African American woman, managed to slip out before the barricades were set up, Samuelsen added. But she’s still “shaken” by her run-in with the demonstrators who verbally attacked her “in a very aggressive and extremely offensive manner,” he said.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/07/tranport-workers-union-columbia-lawsuit-00156421
= new reply since forum marked as read
Something that horrible really puts the kidnapping into perspective.
Because denying someone was kidnapped is a great approach?.
The people they were kidnapping said hurtful things about them.
