A Massachusetts Institute of Technology student testified before Congress on Tuesday, detailing that current labor laws failed to protect him from pervasive antisemitism inside his union, which he is required to be a member of.
“I’ve tried to use the law as it exists and at every turn, the law has failed me,” MIT graduate student William Sussman said. The computer science doctoral candidate cited numerous examples of MIT Graduate Student Union (GSU) staffers occupying buildings, being arrested, and passing a “ceasefire resolution” that did not mention the words “hostages,” “Hamas,” or “peace.”
“The blood had not yet dried when my colleagues at MIT declared ‘Victory is Ours,’”’ Sussman said, referring to a student group sharing an advertisement of an anti-Israel rally one day after Hamas’s massacre of more than 1,000 Israelis on October 7.
The “Confronting Union Antisemitism: Protecting Workers from Big Labor Abuses,” hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions comes amid unions across the country engaging in anti-Israel political activism including passing one-sided resolutions, organizing protests, and persecuting Zionist members.
MIT grad student Sussman tells @RepWalberg current federal law does not adequately protect him or other Jewish students against forced anti-Israel, anti-American political activity.
“The law has failed me.” pic.twitter.com/cnZWNNwujJ
— House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) July 9, 2024
According to Sussman, he was denied a request to have a religious accommodation that would use his compulsory union dues to fund a charity instead of the union’s political activity.
“The union denied my request, telling me in a letter that ‘no principles, teachings or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees to a labor union,’” he said, adding that the union “thinks it understands my faith better than I do.”
Sussman is not the only union member who recently grew disenchanted with their union, according to Glenn Taubman, a staff attorney at the National Right to Work Foundation who also testified.
“The phones are ringing off the hook like never before,” Taubman told The Daily Wire. “I am being called every day by lifelong liberals, lifelong union people, who were mugged by reality.”
He said he is working full time on cases accusing the union of anti-Semitism.
“I’ve been fighting union compulsion for more than 40 years, but we’ve never fought anti-Semitic union compulsion,” Taubman added. “This is a whole new beast that basically did not exist until all of these unions decided they were going to be pro-Hamas and pro-terror after October 7.”
Sussman filed a charge against the union to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which agreed his rights were violated. Eventually, the union began approving religious accommodations after five discrimination charges.
Sussman is one of six MIT graduate students being represented by the National Right to Work Foundation in federal proceedings against the GSU.
Calling himself a “lifelong Democrat,” Sussman advocated for a National Right to Work Act “so that unions have to earn their dues and think twice before discriminating against minorities.”
“Jewish graduate students are a minority at MIT,” Sussman said. “We can’t remove the GSU or disabuse it of its antisemitism. But we also can’t support an organization that actively works toward the eradication of the Jewish homeland, where I have family living now.”
During the hearing, Taubman read messages he received from union members at the City University of New York (CUNY) claiming nails were found in Jewish members’ tires, malicious campaigns were launched to Zionist members fired, and discussions were held about observant Jews being “undesirable for membership.”
“This is virtually Nazi-like from out of the 1930s,” Taubman said. “That’s what these people are seeing on their campuses.”
