The custodians should never have been put in the position they were in when students took over a building. They were like hostages.
The College Fix reports:
Custodians’ union to sue Columbia, says didn’t protect staff from ‘bratty,’ ‘privileged’ protestersColumbia University should expect a lawsuit soon from the union representing custodians who were inside a campus building when pro-Palestinian protesters broke in, a union representative said this week.TWU International President John Samuelsen told Fox News the New York school failed to protect its staff when protesters took over Hamilton Hall earlier this month.“Columbia should have never put the custodians or the security officer in that position and that is at the heart of the matter,” Samuelsen said. “Columbia showed an epic disregard and epically failed to protect the workforce.”Police arrested more than 100 protesters after they took over Hamilton Hall, smashing windows, breaking through doors, and barricading themselves inside, while others refused to leave the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on a nearby lawn, the Columbia Spectator reported.Samuelsen said a few protesters “tried to hold our workers in the building” during the occupation.“The entire TWU workforce in the building was fearful and rightfully so,” he told Fox News. “They stormed in … but two of the custodians had to fight their way out. They were explicitly told ‘You’re staying here, you’re not going anywhere, this cause is bigger than you.’”Samuelsen described the protesters as “smarmy, sort of entitled, spoiled, bratty occupiers” who tried to keep blue-collar workers from going home to their families.“It’s outrageous, it’s an affront to workers everywhere,” he said, adding the university should expect a lawsuit from the union soon.Union leaders also wrote a letter to university President Minouche Shafik asking for more information about the events of the day, including security footage and the names of the protesters who were arrested, according to the report.
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