TWU Blasts Barnard Protesters, Criticizes College
Thursday, February 27, 2025
The Transport Workers Union today blasted Barnard College protesters for injuring a blue-collar Security Officer – and criticized the NYC college for consistently ignoring officers’ safety concerns.
A 41-year-old Security Officer, represented by Transport Workers Union Local 264, was at his post at Milbank Hall Wednesday afternoon when a group of aggressive student protesters surged into the building through a two-door entrance. The officer, standing just outside the entrance, was pushed and shoved during the stampede. He was pinned by the rushing crowd against a beam separating the two doors. One protester lowered his shoulder and slammed into the worker like a linebacker.
Shortly after the incident, the worker experienced chest tightness, shortness of breath, and soreness in his neck and body. He requested medical attention and was taken to a hospital for evaluation. He was then released. A second officer was at the entrance and got caught up in the scrum but was not injured.
“In the eyes of some of these trust-fund baby ideologues, harming the blue-collar TWU workforce at Barnard is seen as acceptable collateral damage in their quest to advance their political cause,” TWU International President John Samuelsen said. “Those responsible for this assault should be identified and prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, not celebrated by self-important elitists who summer in the Hamptons with their rich mommies and daddies.”
Local 264 President Joseph Rose expressed “deep concern and outrage” in an email to Barnard College President Laura Rosenbury. He said the local has consistently raised safety concerns, including inadequate staffing, with Barnard, but those concerns have fallen on deaf ears. The union has argued for years that Barnard needed to create standard operating procedures, emergency operating procedures, and rules of engagement, Rose wrote to the president.
“I pray it doesn’t take something catastrophic to happen before Barnard addresses these concerns that we at the TWU have continuously raised through Labor Management Committees and various other meetings,” Rose stated in the email.