Graduate student unionization

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Graduate student employee unionization refers to labor unions that represent students who are employed by their college or university to teach classes, conduct research and perform clerical duties. As of 2007 there are 28 graduate student employee local unions in the U.S. and 21 local unions in Canada.^[1] Labor laws in the United States and Canada permit collective bargaining for only limited classes of student-employees. Although some undergraduate students work in these job classifications, most are enrolled in graduate education programs. Many university administrators have vigorously opposed the unionization of graduate student employees on their campuses through legal challenges. Opposition by elite universities in the U.S. led to the loss of collective bargaining rights for graduate student employees in the private sector.

1 Collective Bargaining Rights of Graduate Student Employees in the US
2 Major events timeline
3 See also
4 External links
5 Notes

[edit] Collective Bargaining Rights of Graduate Student Employees in the US

Graduate student employees at public colleges and universities in the United States are covered by state collective bargaining laws, where these laws exist. The various state laws differ on which subgroups of graduate employees may bargain collectively, and a few state laws explicitly exclude them from bargaining. Some states have extended collective bargaining rights to graduate employees in response to unionization campaigns.

Graduate student employees at private colleges and universities in the US are covered by the National Labor Relations Act. The rulings of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have shifted in recent years. After years of rejecting graduate employee unionization, the NLRB ruled in 2000 that graduate employees at private universities were covered under the national labor law. In 2004, with newly-appointed members, the Board reversed this decision, revoking the collective bargaining rights of graduate employees.

At the heart of the debate over graduate student employee unionization in the United States is the question of whether academic student employees are employees or students. The employer position, and that of the current NLRB, is that the work graduate employees do is so intertwined with their professional education that collective bargaining will harm the educational process. Supporters of unionization argue that graduate employees' work is primarily an economic relationship. They point especially to universities' use of Teaching Assistants as part of a wider trend away from full-time, tenured faculty.

For tax purposes, the Internal Revenue Service considers the compensation of graduate student employees to be wages. When graduate students receive payment for teaching, it is not taxed on a 1042-S form (for scholarships), but on a W-2 (which is the form for employment income). The income from teaching is taxed differently from scholarships, and treated like employment income.

[edit] Major events timeline

The oldest graduate assistants' union still in existence is the Teaching Assistant's Association at the University of Wisconsin. They settled their first contract in 1970 after a 4 week strike.^[2]
Also in 1970, graduate student instructors at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor formed the Graduate Employees' Organization. The union won its first contract in 1975.^[3]
In 1980 the University of Wisconsin administration unilaterally withdrew from collective bargaining with the TAA. There was no bargaining until a new state law granted bargaining rights and the union won a representation election in 1987.
In 1989, academic student employees at University of California, Berkeley, struck for recognition. Soon after, UC Berkeley voluntarily recognized AGSE/UAW as the Union for Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, Readers, Tutors and Acting Instructors.
In 1992, after a negative court decision, UC Berkeley withdrew recognition of AGSE/UAW, prompting academic student employees at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz to strike for over a month in Fall 1992.
In 1993, 800 Readers, Tutors and Acting Instructors at UC Berkeley win recognition of AGSE/UAW.
In 1993, the State University of New York (SUNY) Graduate Student Employee Union negotiated its first contract with the State of New York.
In 1995, Yale University's Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO) withheld student grades in order to force recognition of their union.
In 1997, The National Labor Relations Board filed charges against Yale for illegal retaliation against graduate students attempting to unionize. However, the university still does not recognize GESO today.
In December 1998, UAW-represented academic student employees at 8 campuses of the University of California struck for recognition on the eve of final exams, prompting leaders of the State Legislature to call for a cooling-off period and negotiations to resolve the issue of recognition. That same month, the California Public Employment Relations Board rules that Teaching Assistants, Readers, and Tutors have collective bargaining rights.
In 1999, the UAW won representation elections for 9,000 academic student employees in the University of California system.
In April, 2000, graduate students who teach, grade papers and conduct research at New York University (NYU) were granted the legal right to form a union by the NLRB. During litigation over graduate students' efforts to organize at NYU, the NLRB Regional Director ruled that graduate students are employees. Proponents were hopeful that this ruling would open the door for other institutions.
NYU appealed that ruling to the NLRB in Washington. On October 31, 2000, the NLRB affirmed the Regional Director's finding.
In the year 2000, there are unionization recognition battles in Illinois, Michigan, Connecticutt and other states.
In December of 2001, an NLRB vote was held at Brown University on whether to unionize graduate students in affiliation with the United Auto Workers. Brown appealed the ruling of the NLRB allowing the election, so the votes were never counted. However, graduate students organized to oppose unionzation claim that the UAW was defeated.
On October 24, 2002, Cornell graduate students rejected a unionization attempt by the United Autoworkers by a margin of 2 to 1.
In December of 2002, after nearly a decade-long effort, graduate employees at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, voted overwhelmingly for the Graduate Employees' Organization as their union.^[4]
At Yale in April, 2003, GESO organized a non-binding election to be certified by the League of Women Voters. GESO lost the vote and subsequently claimed that grad students were intimidated to vote no by the administration. Anti-unionization students challenged these claims as being baseless, as the election was a secret ballot, and pointed to evidence that more union members voted in the election than the number of yes votes. There were also 27 write in ballots which expressed support for unionization, but not for GESO.
In the fall of 2004, the NLRB announced a complete reversal of its 2000 decision in the case of NYU in a 3-2 decision siding with Brown in its 2001 appeal. The Republican controlled board stated in their decision that "there is a significant risk, even a strong likelihood, that the collective-bargaining process will be detrimental to the educational process."