The Union Anti-Semitism Monitor
The Union Anti-Semitism Monitor compiles media articles covering allegations of anti-Semitic discrimination and anti-Israel activism within unions. Note: The content of this page does not solely reflect lawsuits filed by clients of the Fairness Center, and the opinions expressed in linked articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the Fairness Center.
Featured News
News of Union Anti-Semitism
News
US Federal Judge Allows Anti-Semitism Lawsuit to Proceed Against Powerful Lawyers Union
7/17/2025 | Dion J. Pierre | The Algemeiner
Jewish Cornell grad students file federal complaint against union for religious discrimination
7/15/2025 | Jenna Triplett | The College Fix
UC Berkeley chancellor defends handling of campus anti-Semitism in House grilling
7/15/2025 | Nanette Asimov | San Francisco Chronicle
Why Did the NEA Drop the ADL? Accuracy In Media Investigates
7/10/2025 | Accuracy in Media
California teachers union opposing antisemitism bill ‘offensive,’ Jewish orgs say
7/9/2025 | Update Desk | JNS
Largest US teachers union cuts ties with Anti-Defamation League over Israel support: ‘Profoundly disturbing’
7/8/2025 | Ronny Reyes | New York Post
Barnard settles lawsuit brought by Jewish students, agreeing not to meet with pro-Palestinian group
7/7/2025 | Jake Offenhartz | Times Union
NYC legal aid union defeats lawsuit by Jewish lawyers over Israel criticisms
6/30/2025 | David Thomas | Reuters
Cornell grad students say union targeted their Jewish faith in EEOC complaint
6/27/2025 | Savva Archakov | Campus Reform
United Airlines Under Legal Fire for Alleged Union-Driven Suspension of Israel Flight Services
6/3/2025 | Travel and Tour World
Trump lawyer says U.S. plans to sue UC over anti-Semitism allegations
5/27/2025 | Jaweed Kaleem | Los Angeles Times
Flyer urging teachers to divest pension funds from Israel is illegally distributed in NYC schools: ‘Violated trust’
5/23/2025 | Carl Campanile | New York Post
Jewish teacher suing Portland teachers union over alleged anti-Semitic curriculum
5/26/2025 | Carleen Johnson | The Center Square
Anti-Semitism Shadows NYC Teachers Union Election
5/16/2025 | Ellie Krasne | The Times of Israel
Battling anti-Semitic indoctrination in US schools
5/4/2025 | Atara Beck | JNS
Opinion
Anti-Semitism and the Teachers Union
7/15/2025 | Jonathan Greenblatt | Wall Street Journal
Why are America’s teachers’ unions at war with Israel?
7/10/2025 | Jonathan Tobin | JNS
We’re Jewish schoolteachers—our union’s vote against the ADL attacks us too
7/9/2025 | Rebecca Kotok and Brenda Green | New York Post
How Labor Unions Feed Campus Anti-Semitism
7/8/2025 | Nathan McGrath | Wall Street Journal
Teachers union politicizes classrooms with its challenge to anti-Semitism definition
6/26/2025 | Jany Finkielsztein | Boston Globe
American Assoc. University Profs (AAUP) Threw Away Credibility To Become An Anti-Israel “Fighting Organization”
3/30/2025 | Jane Coleman | Legal Insurrection
Columbia University’s Anti-Semitism Problem
3/17/2025 | The Atlantic
Why Is Congress Investigating a Union for Being Anti-Israel?
3/15/2025 | Michelle Goldberg | The New York Times
Massachusetts schools need a balanced curriculum on the Mideast
3/9/2025 | The Boston Globe
Educators Shouldn’t Accept Anti-Semitism in Their Teachers’ Unions
3/8/2025 | Arielle Kingsbury | National Review
Why Trump’s anti-Semitism crackdown should worry UC union
2/20/2025 | Karin Yaniv | The Orange County Register
Chicago teachers want to teach Israel a lesson, not teach students
12/5/2024 | Zachary Faria | Washington Examiner
Hochul Report Whitewashes Teachers Union Anti-Semitism
10/29/2024 | Jeffrey Lax | The American Spectator
Anti-Semitism report lets CUNY off the hook, offers no help against hate
9/24/2024 | Jeff Lax | New York Post
Our Clients
Karin Yaniv, an Israeli postdoc at UC Berkeley, alleges that her graduate student union has created an atmosphere of pervasive hostility and relentless abuse targeting Israeli Jews it represents. She has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking to end the union’s anti-Semitic discrimination against her and other Jews and to hold union officials accountable for the hostile work environment they have fostered on campus.
Avraham Goldstein and five other City University of New York professors were outraged when their union issued a resolution they viewed as “anti-Israel” and “anti-Semitic.” Though these professors are no longer union members, New York law forces them to still accept the union’s representation.
Frimette Kass-Shraibman is an accounting professor at the City University of New York. She is also a Zionist Jew and was one of the six professors who sued their faculty union in Goldstein v. PSC/CUNY. The Fairness Center interviewed Frimette about her lawsuit and the anti-Semitism she has faced on CUNY campuses. Read her Q&A here.
Karin Yaniv, an Israeli postdoc at UC Berkeley, alleges that her graduate student union has created an atmosphere of pervasive hostility and relentless abuse targeting Israeli Jews it represents. She has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking to end the union’s anti-Semitic discrimination against her and other Jews and to hold union officials accountable for the hostile work environment they have fostered on campus.
Avraham Goldstein and five other City University of New York professors were outraged when their union issued a resolution they viewed as “anti-Israel” and “anti-Semitic.” Though these professors are no longer union members, New York law forces them to still accept the union’s representation.
Frimette Kass–Shraibman is an accounting professor at the City University of New York. She is also a Zionist Jew and one of the six professors who sued their faculty union in Goldstein v. PSC/CUNY. The Fairness Center sat down with Frimette and asked her questions about her lawsuit and the anti-Semitism she has faced on CUNY campuses. Read her Q&A here.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you are a public employee who is not a union member, you have a constitutional right not to pay fees to a union, according to the Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME decision in 2018.
Some courts have said that employees who were union members but who later resigned from the union had to continue paying union dues for a period of time in some circumstances. One example is if the employee had signed a membership card or application containing certain language.
We have successfully represented clients who were told they had to pay the union when they did not want to. However, the facts and circumstances of each situation vary, and our ability to offer representation may depend on the relevant legal jurisdiction.
NOTE: If you have questions about this topic, or think you have a legal issue, consider contacting a lawyer. Fairness Center lawyers represent clients for free and can be reached here or at 844.293.1001. We strongly encourage you to pursue with haste any legal claim you believe you may have, as the mere passage of time may prevent you from exercising possible legal claims.
Unions owe a duty of fair representation to all the employees in a bargaining unit they represent, whether they are union members or not. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that the duty is breached when a union’s actions toward an employee it represents are “arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.” Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 190 (1967).
Many jurisdictions follow that standard, but the exact details of what the duty requires may vary by jurisdiction and circumstances. Some states permit unions not to represent nonmembers in “individualized” grievances. Also, some states allow nonmembers to represent themselves in grievances, at least in the first stages.
The Fairness Center has represented clients, like Connecticut teacher John Grande, who alleged that their union violated the duty of fair representation because they were not union members or because union officials misrepresented important information during collective bargaining, as was the case with Pennsylvania employee Mark Kiddo and his colleagues.
NOTE: If you have questions about this topic, or think you have a legal issue, consider contacting a lawyer. Fairness Center lawyers represent clients for free and can be reached here or at 844.293.1001. We strongly encourage you to pursue with haste any legal claim you believe you may have, as the mere passage of time may prevent you from exercising possible legal claims.
Unions owe a duty of fair representation to all the employees in a bargaining unit they represent, whether they are union members or not. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that the duty is breached when a union’s actions toward an employee it represents are “arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.” Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 190 (1967).
Many jurisdictions follow that standard, but the exact details of what the duty requires may vary by jurisdiction and circumstances.
The Fairness Center has represented clients, like Connecticut teacher John Grande, who have alleged that their union violated the duty of fair representation because they were not union members or because union officials misrepresented important information during collective bargaining, as was the case with Pennsylvania employee Mark Kiddo and his colleagues.
NOTE: If you have questions about this topic, or think you have a legal issue, consider contacting a lawyer. Fairness Center lawyers represent clients for free and can be reached here or at 844.293.1001. We strongly encourage you to pursue with haste any legal claim you believe you may have, as the mere passage of time may prevent you from exercising possible legal claims.
The Fairness Center currently offers free legal representation in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Colorado, and to federal employees, and may soon be expanding to other areas. The Fairness Center has represented clients involved in disputes with unions, including:
- American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE),
- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME),
- American Federation of Teachers (AFT),
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW),
- International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Teamsters),
- Law Enforcement Employees Benevolent Association (LEEBA),
- National Education Association (NEA),
- National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU),
- New York State United Teachers (NYSUT),
- Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association (PSCOA),
- Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA),
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU),
- Transportation Workers Union of America (TWU),
- United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW),
- UNITE Here, and more.
NOTE: If you have questions about this topic, or think you have a legal issue, consider contacting a lawyer. Fairness Center lawyers represent clients for free and can be reached here or at 844.293.1001. We strongly encourage you to pursue with haste any legal claim you believe you may have, as the mere passage of time may prevent you from exercising possible legal claims.
Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful for a “labor organization” to “exclude or to expel from its membership, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual because of his race, color, religion, sex, or national origin . . . .” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(c)(1). Some states have laws with similar provisions as well. The Fairness Center has represented clients who believed that a union had discriminated against them on an unlawful basis.
NOTE: If you have questions about this topic, or think you have a legal issue, consider contacting a lawyer. Fairness Center lawyers represent clients for free and can be reached here or at 844.293.1001. We strongly encourage you to pursue with haste any legal claim you believe you may have, as the mere passage of time may prevent you from exercising possible legal claims.
Other Resources
“The mission of the Israeli-American Council (IAC) is to build an engaged and united Israeli-American community that strengthens the Israeli and Jewish identity of our next generation, the American Jewish community, and the bond between the peoples of the United States and the State of Israel.” Visit IAC.
“S.A.F.E. Campus is a nonprofit and non-partisan grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to combating the systemic exclusion and discrimination faced by Zionist and Jewish students, alumni, and faculty on American college campuses.” Visit S.A.F.E. Campus.
“StandWithUs is an international, non-partisan education organization that supports Israel and fights anti-Semitism. StandWithUs empowers and energizes students and communities with leadership training and educational programs on hundreds of college campuses, high schools, and middle schools.” Visit StandWithUs.
The mission of the Israeli-American Council (IAC) is to build an engaged and united Israeli-American community that strengthens the Israeli and Jewish identity of our next generation, the American Jewish community, and the bond between the peoples of the United States and the State of Israel. Visit IAC.
S.A.F.E. Campus is a nonprofit and non-partisan grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to combating the systemic exclusion and discrimination faced by Zionist and Jewish students, alumni, and faculty on American college campuses. Visit S.A.F.E. Campus.
StandWithUs is an international, non-partisan education organization that supports Israel and fights anti-Semitism. StandWithUs empowers and energizes students and communities with leadership training and educational programs on hundreds of college campuses, high schools, and middle schools. Visit StandWithUs.