Student Unions Short on Options as Trump Targets Protesters

Unions representing thousands of student employees are finding themselves in a precarious position as they seek to protect members from the Trump administration’s crackdown on activities it has labeled antisemitic.

Universities have continued disciplinary proceedings for students involved in widespread pro-Palestine protests last year—suspending and expelling hundreds nationwide—while the government threatens to pull hundreds of millions of dollars in higher education funding if they don’t comply with the president’s directives.

The administration has also increased scrutiny on foreign students, withdrawing visas from at least 300 and arresting others, further stoking student union concerns.

Only six months ago, unions had been emboldened to file labor law charges against higher education employers. But now they’ve grown more hesitant under the Trump administration and a hobbled National Labor Relations Board that will eventually have a conservative majority, academics and attorneys say.

“This is going to create a chilling environment,” said Michael Duff, a labor law professor at Saint Louis University. “When individual employees are not sure that what they’re about to do is protected by the law, you’re going to have trouble producing solidarity.”

Encampments Fallout

Unions moved to defend protesters last year following pro-Palestinian encampments on at least 100 college campuses across the nation. The protests, which demanded transparency and divestment from Israel, resulted in thousands of arrests and sparked heated debates over academic freedom and police violence.

Graduate student unions at several colleges, including Brown University, the University of Southern California, and Harvard University, filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB. The filings, which remain pending, alleged the institutions unlawfully changed workplace rules, denied access to union representatives, and threatened and surveilled members.

At the time, union officials said they were optimistic about their chances of favorable findings from Biden-era NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who indicated she would support students’ claims if they showed a connection to workplace conditions. President Donald Trump fired Abruzzo in January.

Now, some unions have grown more cautious about bringing similar claims.

Student Workers of Columbia, for example, is considering legal action, including ULP charges, over the expulsion of former union president Grant Miner, SWC spokesperson Caitlin Liss said. Miner was expelled alongside 21 other students on March 13 because of protest activity.

But the union hasn’t yet filed charges. Instead, it has demanded Miner’s reinstatement, along with commitments from the university to become a “sanctuary campus” for immigrants and reverse the discipline of roughly 150 other students who have been expelled or suspended since May 2024.

The most recent expulsions came the day before the union was scheduled to begin bargaining for a new labor agreement.

Liss said the university canceled initial negotiation sessions and hasn’t restarted bargaining.

The high-profile March 8 arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student and green card holder, by immigration enforcement has also spiked anxiety among the union’s members, she said.

“A huge portion of our membership are international students and people are terrified to be on campus right now,” Liss said. “They feel like they’re going to get snatched up at any moment and Columbia has done nothing to protect them.”

Meanwhile, Columbia filed its own ULP charge against the union March 7, alleging bad-faith bargaining. The university didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Existential Legal Threat

Student worker unions have exploded in size over the past two years, representing one of the largest newly-unionized bloc of workers in 2023. Their recognition as employees under labor law is also fresh, stemming from the NLRB’s 2016 Columbia University decision.

But unionization drives faltered during the first Trump administration, with some prominent unions withdrawing their representation petitions out of fear that the Republican NLRB would reverse the precedent.

A similar pattern may play out during this administration, Duff said.

“Their status as employees is in jeopardy, which means their right to engage in protest as workers, whether unionized or nonunionized, is also in jeopardy,” he said. “It will be a very complicated situation but what’s not complicated is that the unions are on shaky legal ground right now.”

If the student unions brought claims before the board and had their employment status revoked, that could nullify every collective bargaining agreement for similar unions nationwide, Duff said. Labor pacts typically hinge on the members’ status as employees.

The NLRB remains without a quorum after the US Supreme Court for now allowed Trump’s firing of Democratic member Gwynne Wilcox to stand.

The agency’s acting general counsel, William Cowen, indicated he would move away from Abruzzo’s legal interpretations. But the president has nominated Crystal Carey, a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, to take Cowen’s place.

While Carey hasn’t spoken publicly on it, she likely won’t agree with Abruzzo’s positions, said Thomas Lenz, a partner at Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo.

“When you have a Republican administration, they’re going to look at narrowing organizing opportunities and maximizing opportunities for business,” he said.

Political Weight

Even if unions are in a legally-vulnerable place, their officials say they still maintain power on campus to support members and pressure administrators.

Risa Lieberwitz, a labor professor at Cornell University, said Trump’s actions are “clarifying” the vitality of academic freedom protections and the right to have debate.

“We’re going to have lots of disagreements among ourselves but we’d like to live in a future where we can have those disagreements,” she said. “Academic freedom is the bread and butter of collective bargaining in higher education. It’s just as concrete as compensation and other working conditions.”

Ethan Weisbaum, an organizer with the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees at Georgetown University, said the union is looking to beef up its CBAs during upcoming contract negotiations. A Georgetown postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Badar Khan Suri, was detained by immigration authorities last month.

“This moment is going to weigh heavily in how we negotiate successor contracts,” Weisbaum said. “There is now an urgency for protections for international students that wasn’t necessarily there before.”