Graduate Students and Union Representation – Few Issues are as Misunderstood

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.employmentpolicy.org/topic/578/op-ed/graduate-students-and-union-representation-%E2%80%93-few-issues-are-misunderstood-whether-gr

FULL title: Graduate Students and Union Representation – Few Issues are as Misunderstood as Whether Graduate Student Employees Have a Right to Join Unions

Authored by: Ellen Dannin
Posted By: Ellen Dannin - Pennsylvania State University
Posted June 25, 2011
Labor and Employment Law


A recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) New York Regional Office, could pave the way for clearing up longstanding misunderstanding of graduate students’ rights to bargaining collectively with universities that employ them.

That decision by Elbert F. Tellem, Acting Regional Director of NLRB Region 2, comes in a case involving the efforts of graduate students at New York University to unionize.

In May 2010, GSOC/UAW Local 2110 filed a petition with the NLRB to represent New York University graduate student employees. The union had already won a majority of votes tallied by the American Arbitration Association on April 26, but NYU refused to recognize the union. On October 25, 2010, the Board, in a 2-1 decision, ordered the Regional Director for NLRB Region 2 (which has jurisdiction over boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City; and Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties) to hold a hearing on the employee status of the NYU graduate students.

Most people incorrectly believe that graduate student employees have no right to union representation. Take, for example, a July 23, 2004 Chronicle of Higher Education story on the NLRB’s 2004 decision concerning Brown University graduate students. “Labor Board Rules Against TA Unions - Decision is major blow to organizing efforts at private colleges”:

FULL story at link.