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Since 2016, graduate teaching and research assistants at private institutions have had legal protection to form unions thanks to a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board determining that the students qualify as employees. But that may soon change: The NLRB, which now has a Republican majority, announced last week that it will make a new rule regarding students’ employee status.
It’s not clear what exactly the new rule will be, but union supporters are bracing themselves for the worst.
“Universities that are determined not to bargain with graduate students’ unions will surely see this notice as good news,” says Charlotte Garden, an associate professor at the Seattle University School of Law, in an email to the Chronicle of Higher Education. “That doesn’t mean that the issue is going away—instead I expect that graduate students will continue to pressure universities to come to the bargaining table ...
