National Labor Relations Board: Graduate Students Can Unionize

Graduate Students Can Unionize at Private Colleges, U.S. Labor Panel Rules
Wall Street Journal// Melanie Trottman

The National Labor Relations Board ruled that Columbia University graduate students are employees under federal labor law, paving the way for graduate students at private colleges nationwide to join labor unions.

In a 3-1 decision announced Tuesday, the board of mostly Democrats said there is no clear language in the National Labor Relations Act that prohibits the teaching assistants from being afforded the protections of employees, including the right to unionize.

 The victory for the Columbia graduate students that petitioned to join a union could potentially deliver tens of thousands of members to the nation’s struggling labor movement.

 It will also pose a challenge for some of the nation’s most prestigious universities, which had warned a decision in favor of the students could disrupt colleges across the country by injecting collective bargaining into graduate programs.

The ruling reversed a 2004 decision involving Brown University, saying that decision “deprived an entire category of workers of the protections of the Act without a convincing jurisdiction.”

The NLRB oversees union-organizing elections and referees workplace disputes in most of the private sector. It doesn’t have jurisdiction in the public sector. A small portion of the roughly one million graduate students at public universities have been unionized for decades.

Graduate Students Can Unionize at Private Colleges, Labor Board Rules
Time// Melissa Chan

The National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday paved the way for graduate student assistants to join labor unions after it ruled that such workers at private colleges and universities in the U.S. are considered employees under federal labor law.

Student teaching and research assistants at private universities will be allowed to vote to unionize after the board’s 3-1 decision overturned a 2004 precedent involving Brown University graduate student assistants. The ruling came after a group of graduate students at Columbia University filed a union election petition at the university in December 2014.

In 2004, the board ruled that assistants could not be considered employees because they are primarily students, according to the New York Times. The board on Tuesday said that decision “deprived an entire category of workers of the protections of the Act without a convincing justification.”

Are they students? Or are they employees? NLRB rules that graduate students are employees.
Washington Post// Danielle Douglas-Gabriel

The National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday that graduate students who work as teaching and research assistants at private universities are school employees, clearing the way for them to join or form unions that administrators must recognize.

Debates about the role and rights of graduate students have emerged as more universities rely on low-paid adjuncts and doctoral students, rather than full-time professors, to teach — a model that has been widely criticized as exploitative. Though adjuncts are making inroads in their fight for higher wages, graduate students have struggled, in part, because the work they do is often a component of their education.

The 3-to-1 decision overturns a 2004 Brown University ruling in which the board said grad students engaging in collective bargaining would undermine the nature and purpose of graduate education. Many doctoral programs require students to teach or conduct research before earning their degrees, and as a result, universities argue that they have an educational, not economic, relationship with those students.

Graduate students at private colleges can unionize: U.S. labor board

Reuters // Robert Iafolla

Columbia University graduate students who work as research and teaching assistants can form a union, the U.S. labor board ruled on Tuesday, opening the gates for graduate student organizing on private campuses all over the country.

On a 3-1 vote, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said that graduate students are employees who get organizing rights under federal labor law.

The NLRB's decision allows Columbia University research and teaching assistants to vote on whether they want to join a United Auto Workers affiliate.

 The decision only applies to private colleges. Organizing rights for graduate students at public colleges depend on each state’s labor laws. Graduate students have formed unions in more than a dozen states.

With Tuesday’s decision, the NLRB overturned its own ruling from 2004 that had barred graduate student unionization. It is the second time the NLRB has said graduate students can unionize.

The NLRB first found that graduate students at New York University could form a union in 2000, when the board was controlled by Democratic members.

 The NLRB has been controlled by Democratic members since the 2008 election of President Barack Obama.

Labor board rules student assistants can form union

Washington Examiner // Sean Higgins

 The National Labor Relations Board, the main federal labor law enforcement agency, ruled Tuesday that student assistants are employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act and therefore eligible to form a union.

The ruling could have a profound impact on higher education, as student assistants are widely used at private colleges and universities in lieu of traditional teachers.

The labor board ruled 3-1 in a case called Columbia University that student assistants are statutory employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act. The United Auto Workers has been seeking to represent both graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants there since December 2014. The labor board's ruling reversed a 2004 precedent called Brown that said graduate students were not employees. The current majority said that was no longer tenable.

"We hold today that student assistants who have a common-law employment relationship with their university are statutory employees under the act. We will apply that standard to student assistants, including assistants engaged in research funded by external grants," the majority said.

Grad students who teach, research are employees, NLRB rules

Philadelphia Inquirer // Jane M. Von Bergen

College students who get paid for work as teaching or research assistants at their schools are considered employees, the National Labor Relations Board said Tuesday, overturning a previous ruling.

Their status as employees allows them the possibility of unionizing.

At issue was whether graduate students who also teach and do research are primarily students. The board said that the National Labor Relations Act covers the students "by virtue of an employment relationship; it is not foreclosed by the existence of some other additional relationship" not covered by the act.

The decision, on behalf of graduate student employees at Columbia University in New York, overturns a 2004 decision filed against graduate students at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

"IT's HAPPENING PEOPLE!!! Board: Student Assistants Covered by the National Labor Relations Act," tweeted the Stand Up for Graduate Student Employees organization at Brown University.

"In another blow to employers, the NLRB ruled today that grad students are employees and can unionize," management lawyers Rick Grimaldi and Lori Armstrong Halber, partners at Fisher Phillips' Philadelphia office, tweeted.

NLRB: Columbia U. Graduate Students Can Unionize

Newsmax // Staff Writer

 Columbia University graduate students who work as research and teaching assistants can form a union, the U.S. labor board ruled on Tuesday, opening the gates for graduate student organizing on private campuses all over the country.

On a 3-1 vote, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said that graduate students are employees who get organizing rights under federal labor law.

 The NLRB's decision allows Columbia University research and teaching assistants to vote on whether they want to join a United Auto Workers affiliate.

 The decision only applies to private colleges. Organizing rights for graduate students at public colleges depend on each state's labor laws. Graduate students have formed unions in more than a dozen states.

With Tuesday's decision, the NLRB overturned its own ruling from 2004 that had barred graduate student unionization. It is the second time the NLRB has said graduate students can unionize.

The NLRB first found that graduate students at New York University could form a union in 2000, when the board was controlled by Democratic members.

Partisan control of the board flipped after the 2000 election of Republican President George W. Bush, clearing the way for the 2004 decision that graduate students could not unionize.

The NLRB has been controlled by Democratic members since the 2008 election of President Barack Obama.

NLRB: Graduate Students at Private Universities May Unionize

Inside Higher Ed // Scott Jaschik

Graduate students who work as teaching and research assistants at private universities are entitled to collective bargaining, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday.

The NLRB said that a previous ruling by the board -- that these workers were not entitled to collective bargaining because they are students -- was flawed. The NLRB ruling, 3 to 1, came in a case involving a bid by the United Auto Workers to organize graduate students at Columbia University. The decision reverses a 2004 decision -- which has been the governing one until today -- about a similar union drive at Brown University.

Many graduate students at public universities are already unionized, as their right to do so is covered by state law, not federal law.

The ruling largely rejects the fights of previous boards over whether teaching assistants should be seen primarily as students or employees. They can be both, the majority decision said.

 "The board has the statutory authority to treat student assistants as statutory employees, where they perform work, at the direction of the university, for which they are compensated. Statutory coverage is permitted by virtue of an employment relationship; it is not foreclosed by the existence of some other, additional relationship that the [National Labor Relations] Act does not reach," says the decision.

Universities have argued -- and a past ruling by the NLRB agreed -- that collective bargaining could intrude on the educational relationship between graduate students and their universities. That argument "is unsupported by legal authority, by empirical evidence or by the board’s actual experience," the decision says.

Here Come Student Worker Unions At Private Colleges

Forbes // Erik Sherman

 The term “student union” typically meant a community center for those attending an institution of higher education. Now school administrators are bracing themselves for a likely new definition.

A new decision from the National Labor Relations Board is the latest hammer blow to university budgets. A 3-1 vote in a case involving Columbia University held that student assistants at private institutions of higher learning are employees under the National Labor Relations Act.

The NLRA does not cover government employment, and public universities and their employees fall into that category. However, at many state schools, graduate student workers already belong to unions, according to Inside Higher Ed.

The new NLRB decision opens doors to many potential outcomes, including whether students can form or join labor unions. It also raises the question of the financial impact on the schools and their teaching and research programs.

Voting in favor were NLRB chair Mark Gaston Pearce, Kent Hirozawa, and Lauren McFerran. Dissenting was Philip Miscimarra, who argued that teaching duties for graduate students, in particular, were also academic requirements. He also wrote, “Congress never intended that the NLRA and collective bargaining would be the means by which students and their families might attempt to exercise control over such an extraordinary expense [as graduate school].”

The Graduate Workers of Columbia-GWC, UAW filed a petition with the NLRB on December 17, 2014, seeking the right to represent “all student employees who provide instructional service,” including undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants, graduate research assistants, and departmental research assistants. (The NLRB has had jurisdiction over private, non-profit post-secondary schools for 45 years.) A regional NLRB board turned down the request, citing precedent in a 2004 case involving Brown University and a part of the UAW. At that time, the NLRB ruled that because the workers in question “are primarily students and have a primarily educational, not economic, relationship with their university.”

Faculty members have long had the right to collective bargaining. The new decision says that the primarily educational relationship students have with a university does not exclude the possibility of other simultaneous relationships as well. Further, the board said that the existence of an employee relationship permits statutory coverage by the NLRA. Such coverage includes the right to collective bargaining under the auspices of a union.

According to Inside Higher Ed, many had expected the UAW to prevail and Columbia significantly raised graduate student worker pay in July in an apparent attempt to placate students and a new union.

Grad Students Can Now Unionize, Despite Ivy League Objections

Buzzfeed News // Cora Lewis

Graduate students working at private colleges and universities are now free to unionize, after a government panel ruled they should be considered employees of their school.

The ruling by the National Labor Relations Board overturned a 2004 decision that declared them fundamentally students, not employees. The new ruling determined that they are both, and should be protected by federal labor law.

It means TA’s and graduate student workers at private schools may unionize and collectively bargain over working conditions, as such students at many public universities already do. (Workers at public universities are covered by state, not federal law.) As recognized employees, graduate students will also be protected by law from retaliation and sexual harassment.

Union organizing drives for graduate workers are currently underway at Harvard, Yale, the New School, Cornell, Duke, and Northwestern, in addition to Columbia University, whose unionization drive, supported by the United Auto Workers union, sparked the case.

“Student assistants who have a common-law employment relationship with their university are statutory employees,” the NLRB ruled, saying the 2004 decision “deprived an entire category of workers of the protections of the Act without a convincing justification.”

Graduate students and non-tenure-tracked staff have filled an increasing number of university campus positions in recent years — teaching, grading, and providing research assistance at a fraction of the cost of full professors.

“Given the critical role that TA’s and RA’s play in the fundamental missions of the University, from our hallmark Core Curriculum to leading the discussion sections that make large lecture classes possible, and conducting innovative scientific research, I sincerely hope the administration respects this decision, allows a fair vote, and bargains in good faith for a contract if a majority votes in favor of unionization,” said Eric Foner, Professor of History at Columbia, in a statement shared with the media.

The Unionizing of Graduate Students

The Atlantic // Matt Vasilogambros

The National Labor Relations Board ruled 3-1 Tuesday that graduate students working as teaching or research assistants are entitled to collective-bargaining rights. The case, brought forth by Columbia University graduate students and the United Automobile Workers (which already backs the university’s clerical workers, in addition to graduate students at New York University and the University of Connecticut), is a reversal of a 12-year-old ruling by the federal board.

The board, in its decision, said graduate students can be both students and employees, and are therefore allocated the rights of workers. The decision, according to Inside Higher Education, states:

The board has the statutory authority to treat student assistants as statutory employees, where they perform work, at the direction of the university, for which they are compensated. Statutory coverage is permitted by virtue of an employment relationship; it is not foreclosed by the existence of some other, additional relationship that the [National Labor Relations] Act does not reach.

The ruling overturns one from 2004 that said graduate students who served as teaching or research assistants were still students, and not subject to union rights for which workers are entitled. That ruling, which involved Brown University graduate students, only involved private universities. Graduate students at public universities are subject to state collective-bargaining laws, and many have already unionized.

Before the ruling, Columbia University expressed its concerns with graduate students unionizing, saying it “could adversely affect their educational experience.” The New York Times reported in 2015:

Columbia officials say the school is generous to teaching and research assistants, paying full tuition and stipends. Students say they receive $22,000 to $40,000, varying by department. Like many universities, Columbia fears that a union could bring tensions and strikes.

The university may still appeal the NLRB decision in court.

 

NLRB rules that grad students are employees, opens door to unionization
Chicago Tribune // Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz

In a major decision that opens the door for graduate students across the country to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday that grad students who work as teaching and research assistants are employees covered by federal labor laws.

The 3-1 decision — which stems from a petition filed by a group of graduate students at Columbia University in New York who wished to join the United Auto Workers union — reverses a 2004 decision involving Rhode Island's Brown University that had held that grad students are not employees because they are primarily students.

The majority wrote that the Brown decision "deprived an entire category of workers of the protections of the (National Labor Relations) Act without a convincing justification."

The decision states: "The Board has the statutory authority to treat student assistants as statutory employees, where they perform work, at the direction of the university, for which they are compensated. Statutory coverage is permitted by virtue of an employment relationship; it is not foreclosed by the existence of some other, additional relationship that the Act does not reach."

The Service Employees International Union, which has been behind a recent surge in unionization efforts of adjunct instructors at private schools across the country, released a news release stating that grad students at a number of schools — including Northwestern University in Evanston — "are launching a massive drive to build unions with SEIU."

There are also efforts with the American Federation of Teachers, which is affiliated with Graduate Students United at the University of Chicago.

"This favorable verdict is a big shot in the arm for the union we have built over these last nine years at U. of C., giving graduate students another powerful tool for improving our working lives," said Abhishek Bhattacharyya, a University of Chicago doctoral student in South Asian languages and civilizations as well as anthropology. "We remain committed to building a robust, inclusive and democratic union, working alongside teachers in the city, activists in South Side Chicago, and others looking to change the way things work."

Labor board rules teaching assistants can unionize
The Hill // Tim Devaney

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a 3-1 vote ruled Tuesday that student assistants at private universities may be allowed to unionize.

The Democratic-leaning NLRB reversed an earlier ruling that blocked Brown University graduate students from unionizing, in a case that could have broader implications for graduate students who attend private colleges.

The NLRB was considering a case brought by group of teaching assistants at Columbia University. United Auto Workers representatives were working to unionize the teaching assistants at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

The board ruled that the students should be considered employees and given the opportunity to collectively bargain with their school.

The students should be treated as employees “where they perform work, at the direction of the university, for which they are compensated,” the Board ruled.

The Board's lone Republican dissented.

The decision reverses an earlier 2004 decision involving Brown University. In that decision, the NLRB had ruled the graduate students could not unionize because they were students. Universities have argued that if students are allowed to unionize, it could negatively affect their education given the relationship between students and universities.

The NLRB’s ruling applies to graduate students who are working for their universities, but not all students.

At public universities, some graduate students have already unionized under state laws that allow for unionization.

The majority decision effectively states that at private universities, graduate students can be seen as both students and employees of the university.

 

Student workers can now unionize at private colleges

CNN Money // Jackie Wattles

The National Labor Relations Board announced a 3-1 decision Tuesday in favor of Columbia University graduate and undergraduate students who work as teaching and research assistants. The will allow students at Columbia and any other private schools to unionize.

"The majority found no compelling reason to exclude student assistants from" collective bargaining rights, the board said in a statement.

It marks a powerful victory for students across the country who have sought to do the same thing. Students at Manhattan's The New School and Harvard have also sought to organize under the UAW. The UAW is one of the largest industrial unions in the country, but it has also branched out to represent other types of employees, such as government workers, professors and teachers.

The Service Employees International Union is working to build unions for student workers at Duke, Northwestern and American, SEIU said in a statement.

New York University, located about 100 blocks from Columbia, voluntarily recognized a student workers' union in 2013. That spurred Columbia students to attempt to do the same by forming Columbia-GWC, UAW in 2014.

But Ivy League schools have historically been opposed to having student workers unionize, and Columbia refused to formally recognize the group -- spurring the labor union advocates to petition the NLRB. That measure was denied by the NLRB's regional office, which cited a NLRB ruling from 2004 that denied a similar request from students at Brown University.

Tuesday's ruling overturns the 2004 decision.

"We are excited we have finally reached this important milestone and look forward to a speedy, fair election so we can demonstrate our majority support, and get into bargaining as soon as possible," Olga Brudastova, a research assistant at Columbia, said in a statement.

 

Grad students can unionize, NLRB rules in landmark decision

Yale Daily News //  Finnegan Schick and Victor Wang

Graduate student teachers and research assistants at private universities like Yale are now permitted to form unions, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday in a landmark decision.

At the heart of the decision was a ruling on whether graduate students are primarily students or employees. The case concerned whether graduate students at Columbia could unionize, but applies to private universities nationwide.

“The board has the statutory authority to treat student assistants as statutory employees, where they perform work, at the direction of the university, for which they are compensated,” states the NLRB majority opinion.

Tuesday’s decision overturned a 2004 NLRB ruling on Brown University students stating that graduate students could not be considered employees. The board this week ruled 3-1 in favor of unionization, signaling a victory for Local 33, formerly known as GESO, which has lobbied for graduate student unionization at Yale for decades.

 

Columbia graduate students win right to unionize in landmark case

Columbia Daily Spectator //  Jessica Spitz

In a landmark case, graduate students at private universities nationwide will now be able to unionize following the National Labor Relations Board’s decision in favor of graduate research and teaching assistants at Columbia.

A 3-1 decision released by the NLRB on Tuesday overturns a 2004 Brown University precedent that banned graduate students from unionizing, which stated that students were not employees and were not entitled to the right to collectively bargain.

"We're throughly excited that the NLRB has ruled in our favor," Paul Katz, an organizer with the group Graduate Workers at Columbia, said. "It's particularly exciting that this is paying off not only at Columbia but across the country."

 

Feds Bolster Union Ranks By Making Grad Students Workers

Inside Sources //  Connor D. Wolf

Federal officials opened the door to graduate students unionizing Tuesday in a decision that could upend the sacred relationship students have with their teachers.

Columbia University graduate students have led a nationwide fight to gain the right to unionize. Universities have opposed the push because it would make their students more akin to employees. The National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) has decided to side with the graduate students.

“The threshold question before us is whether students who perform services at a university in connection with their studies are statutory employees,” the decision detailed. “We hold today that student assistants who have a common-law employment relationship with their university are statutory employees under the Act.”

 

Grad Students at Private Colleges Can Now Unionize

Vice // Vice Staff Writer

The labor movement won a significant victory Tuesday when the feds ruled graduate students at Columbia University who work as teaching and research assistants have the right to unionize, the New York Times reports.

While certain state laws allow teaching and research assistants at many public universities to organize, a 2004 National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision held that teaching assistants at Brown University could not unionize because their relationship with the school was "primarily educational," rather than economic.

The board reversed that decision Tuesday, recognizing certain graduate students as employees under federal law. In a 3–1 decision, the majority—all Democrats—decided that students should be treated like workers if the university is paying them for jobs it oversees.

 

Harvard, Other Universities Must Recognize Grad Student Unions, Labor Board Rules

Harvard Crimson // Leah S. Yared

Overturning precedent, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that student assistants at private universities are considered employees with collective bargaining rights, a move that would force Harvard to legally recognize an elected graduate student union.

The 3-1 decision handed down Tuesday marks a significant milestone for the unionization effort at Harvard, which began in April 2015 and has since grown in size and sophistication despite opposition from University administrators. However, the ruling has implications far beyond Harvard and comes as debate over the issue of graduate student unionization has roiled campuses across the country. The decision does not only affect Ph.D. students or graduate students; the NLRB ruled that employees under a collective bargaining unit could include undergraduate teaching assistants and research assistants as well.

Harvard’s unionization movement, the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers, ramped up efforts over the last year to push Harvard to recognize a graduate student union and has already gained more than enough support among graduate students to call for a union election.

Private Universities Must Recognize Graduate-Student Unions

Harvard Magazine // Marina N. Bolotnikova

Graduate students at private universities have the right to form labor unions, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in a 3-1 decision Tuesday. The ruling means that Harvard and other private universities where students have called for a labor union may have to engage in collective bargaining over pay and benefits with graduate students.

Harvard had filed an amicus brief on the case in February, urging the NLRB not to change its prior position on graduate-student unionization (which held that student were not entitled to collective bargaining). Collective bargaining, the University’s brief argued, would change students’ academic relationship with their institutions into a labor relationship. Harvard has been vocal in its opposition to a union, and has created, for example, a website intended to educate students about their pay and benefits.