Dear Provost Katznelson,

We write you as fellow historians.  Your scholarship in working-class history has been of profound importance and has affirmed the right of every working person to bargain collectively. We call upon you to honor that commitment and lead the Columbia administration in good-faith bargaining with its graduate students and other student workers. We also urge you to immediately cease the punitive withholding of stipends; not only is this a classic union-busting tactic but it is morally reprehensible, given how difficult it is for these workers to live in New York city.  Finally, like any other workers, they have a right to a policy outlining freedom from discrimination and harassment, which we hope you will implement immediately.

As historians who value both scholarship and activism, we feel that the university should provide a model for equitable labor relations and demonstrate respect for the rights of all its workers.  This is the standard to which we will hold Columbia—and you. We also fear that if Columbia succeeds in breaking GWC-UAW Local 2110 it will be a signal to other universities and will only increase the precarity of this large sector of academic workers, further undermining the academy overall.

Sincerely,

Alexander Aviña, Associate Professor of History, Arizona State Universities

Marc Becker, Professor of History, Truman State University

Joel Beinin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History Emeritus, Stanford University

Horace G. Campbell, Professor of African American Studies and Political Science, Maxwell School of Citizenship, Syracuse University

Kellie Carter Jackson, Knafel Assistant Professor of the Humanities, Department of Africana Studies, Wellesley College

Annette Chapman-Adisho, Professor of History, Salem State University

Aviva Chomsky, Professor of History, Salem State University

Joshua B. Freeman, Professor of History Emeritus, Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York

Van Gosse, Professor of History, Franklin & Marshall College

Marc Goulding, Associate Professor, Department of History and Geography, University of Central Oklahoma

Anup Grewal, Assistant Professor, Department of Historical and Cultural Studies, University of Toronto

Peter Kuznick, Professor of History, American University

Alex Lichtenstein, Professor of History, Indiana University

Zachary Lockman, Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and of History, New York University

Patrick Manning, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh; Past President, American Historical Association

Teresa Meade, Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture Emerita, Union College

Wilbur R. Miller, Professor of History Emeritus, Stony Brook University (SUNY)

Marissa J. Moorman, Professor of History, Indiana University

Kevin P. Murphy, Professor of History, University of Minnesota

Molly Nolan, Professor of History Emerita, New York University

Annelise Orleck, Professor of History, Dartmouth College

Naomi Paik, Associate Professor of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Margaret MacDonald Power, Professor of History, Illinois Institute of Technology

Ellen Schrecker, Professor of History Emerita, Yeshiva University

Mark Selden, Professor of Sociology and History Emeritus, State University of New York at Binghamton

Alan Singer, Director, Secondary Education Social Studies, Hofstra University

Andor Skotnes, Professor of History and Society Emeritus, Russell Sage College

Daniel Walkowitz, Professor of History Emeritus, New York University

Barbara Weinstein, Professor of History, New York University; Past President, American Historical Association

Jon Wiener, Professor of History Emeritus, University of California Irvine

Lawrence S. Wittner, Professor of History Emeritus, State University of New York at Albany

Kevin A. Young, Associate Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst

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