Grad students who teach, research are employees, NLRB rules

At private universities such as Columbia, Penn, Harvard and Cornell, this year's back-to-campus activities might include some old-fashioned union organizing - thanks, or, perhaps no thanks, to a ruling Tuesday by the National Labor Relations Board.

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

Their status as employees allows them the possibility of unionizing.

"You'll see more organizing," said employment attorney Daniel Johns, who heads the higher-education practice at Ballard Spahr L.L.P. in Philadelphia. "It'll be a prominent issue for students coming back to school and starting the semester."

At issue was whether graduate students who also teach and conduct research are primarily students or employees.

The board said 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 unionizing at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

That decision threw cold water on an attempt to organize graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 2000s.

A push by a graduate student group known then as GetUp faltered. However, their protests led to increases in stipends and health benefits, said then-organizer Todd Wolfson, now a Rutgers University faculty member.

Since then, Penn has also set up organizations to address graduate students' concerns, a university spokesman said.

But Tuesday's decision may reignite a drive on Penn's campus.

One graduate student who, with others, has been talking about issues on campus, described the decision as "great" because it opens doors to seeing what they can do. The student did not want to be identified out of fear of retaliation from the university.

The student said issues include health benefits, funding to cover the many years it may take to earn a doctorate, and workload. Those involved in research labs often end up working too many hours and cannot appeal those working conditions because their advisers are also their supervisors.

Grad students at public universities, such as Temple and Rutgers, have been unionized for years.

In its decision, the NLRB said some universities have already "navigated delicate topics near the intersection of the university's dual role as educator and employer."

Dissenting NLRB board member Philip A. Miscimarra, who received his law degree from Penn, said the decision could lead to student strikes, lockouts, the loss or delay of academic credit, even the potential to bring in replacement workers/students.

Though Tuesday's decision may encourage graduate student activism this fall, Johns said it is only the latest factor.

The NLRB has issued new rules making it possible to hold union elections more quickly, he said.

It has also allowed unions to organize smaller groups, raising the possibility, he said, that the grad students in the English department might choose to unionize, while down the hall, the philosophy doctoral students may take the opposite view.

Millennial students have become more aware of unions through the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign - and if Hillary Clinton wins, there's little chance that the NLRB will reverse itself yet again on this issue soon, Johns said.

Timing is also key.

"You have more time at the beginning of the semester than at the end," he said, "so you are certainly going to see an uptick in organizing."

Source: Philly.com