Student Workers of Columbia, an affiliate of the United Auto Workers representing more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate student employees, dropped its Israel divestment article from contract negotiations on Tuesday 29 July. The union had endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and made activism against Israel a priority.
The pressure came from inside the labour movement. The parent United Auto Workers pushed the local to narrow its activist agenda, which is a different kind of constraint from an administration refusing a demand.
Columbia's investment committee had already rejected divestment in 2025, citing proposals it considered vague, an absence of campus consensus, and financial concerns. What changed this week is not the university's answer but whether the question stays inside a labour contract, where it would have bound an employer on a matter of foreign policy.