Targeted Labor Leader Warns of More Government Repression!
UAW President Grant Miner [l] joins an emergency rally in Times Square Mar. 18 denouncing Israel’s decision to break a two-month-old ceasefire in Gaza resulting in the immediate deaths of some 400 Palestinian people, as well as the Trump administration’s parallel crackdown on free speech and labor.
By Joe Maniscalco
In an exclusive interview with Work-Bites in Times Square on Tuesday night, UAW Local 2710 President Grant Miner said the Trump administration’s naked attempt to crush the Columbia University’s student worker union is all part of an overall attack on labor and First Amendment rights.
In other words: We’re all next.
“Trump’s attempt to crush our union and cut our jobs is directly related to Palestine—but what I’ve been saying to people [we have autoworkers in our region, too]—is that they’re going to come for all of our public services,” Miner said.
Miner, who was fired and expelled one day before contract negotiations with Columbia University were set to begin last week, was in Times Square on Tuesday night as part of an emergency street action to protest Israel’s decision this week to break the two-month-old ceasefire in Gaza and resume its bombing campaign, immediately killing more than 400 Palestinian people.
UAW Local 2710 has been at the forefront of student-led protests on the Columbia University campus challenging the mass slaughter that has now taken the lives of nearly 50,000 Palestinian people—including well over 17,000 children.
In response, the Trump administration earlier this month cancelled $400 million in grants and contracts with Columbia University and vowed to cut even more federal dollars in an attempt to clamp down on those pesky student-led protests.
The International Union has denounced Miner’s expulsion and firing as part of a “shocking wave of crackdowns on free speech against students and workers who have spoken out and protested for peace and against the war on Gaza.”
Times Square protester holds UAW sign supporting Palestinian people continuing to die underneath Israeli bombs—with US support.
“As the UAW has emphasized,” it said in a recent statement, “the assault on First Amendment rights being jointly committed by the federal government and Columbia University are an attack on all workers who dare to protest, speak out, or exercise their freedom of association under the US Constitution.”
“They’re always going to have some political argument to back it up,” Miner continued. “For us it’s Palestine—but no matter what you believe, they’re gonna say your budget needs to be cut, or that they need to close your factory and provide a tax break for your boss to move overseas, or whatever.”
Regardless of the nature of Trump’s attacks, Miner said organized labor has a “huge role” to play in stopping the mass slaughter happening in Gaza and increasing authoritarianism at home.
“And I think it’s still growing into its role,” he said. “Being in a union is exercising democratic control over the workplace. You need to stand up for what you believe in—and if that means making sure your workplace isn’t complicit—materially, politically, financially, in the genocide— that falls into the purvey of a union.”
Miner also called out the ongoing detention of fellow Columbia University grad student Mahmoud Khalid, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. that the Trump administration is actively trying to deport after helping to lead student opposition against the mass slaughter in Gaza.
Protesters in Times Square on Mar. 18 demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil and an end to Israeli bombings in Gaza.
“It’s not a coincidence that in the week leading up to the resumption of the genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people, Trump decided to deport, to punish domestic dissent—by kidnapping former UAW member Mahmoud Khalil—my friend Mahmoud Khalil,” Miner told protesters in Times Square. “At this moment, ICE and DHS [Department of Homeland Security] are doing raids in our colleges and campuses across this country.”
Protest organizers also read part of a statement Khalil issued this week from a Louisiana detention center saying, “With January’s ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling two small shrouds and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom.”
Miner further blasted Columbia University for allegedly unenrolling another Local 2710 member and evicting her after her visa was suddenly revoked.
“All of this, of course, pales in comparison to the horrors in Gaza,” Miner said. “It just goes to show you that we need to hold our institutions’ feet to the flames to make sure they don’t give in to Trump—whose only goal is to crush this movement.”
A Columbia University spokesperson told Work-Bites it has a “protocol in place,” and “consistent with this protocol, and consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including residential University buildings.”
Interim Columbia University President Katrina Armstrong, meanwhile, issued a statement this week saying in part, “We are committed to doing what’s right for Columbia and will not waver from our principles and the values of academic freedom and free expression that have guided this institution for the last 270 years.”
UAW Local 2710 successfully secured its first-ever contract in January 2022, after a 10-week strike. Gains included a $22.50 minimum wage and $5,500 child care subsidy.