Labor Board Okays Graduate Students' Union

In a decision that could affect all private universities in the nation, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled Tuesday that graduate students who are paid to teach or do research have the right to unionize.

The ruling could allow Harvard graduate students to unionize, but University officials and graduate students said graduate students here are unlikely to do so in the near future.

The 17-page ruling, delivered Wednesday, came in response to a challenge by New York University (NYU) to a regional labor board decision in April that sided with the 1,500 graduate students who held an election to decide whether to unionize.

The four-member NLRB ruled that "graduate assistants perform services under the control and direction of the Employer" and thus have "statutory rights to organize and bargain with their employer."

NYU's Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC), which has attempted to form a union affiliated with the United Auto Workers, voted in April on whether to unionize. The ballots, which were not counted then because of NYU's appeal, will be counted next Wednesday. If pro-union votes receive a simple majority, the GSOC will be able to form a union.

GSOC member and NYU graduate teaching assistant Michael E. Gasper said he was "ecstatic" when he heard the news.

"We expected it but I was still extremely happy," he said

The NLRB decision cannot be appealed to another labor board, but NYU may choose to go to court to avoid having to recognize the union.

GSOC leaders are confident that they will win even if the university goes to court. "[NYU] could do whatever it wants," Gasper said. "Eventually there's going to be a graduate student union at NYU."

In a statement posted on the university website, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said, "We are disappointed by the decision rendered today by the National Labor Relations Board with regard to the issue of unionization by graduate assistants. Today's decision overturns nearly a quarter-century of precedent with no changes in circumstances to justify it."

NYU officials have not said whether they will take the matter to court.

The ruling has unsettled many private universities because it removed the last significant legal obstacle to graduate student unionization at private universities. Yale University, for example, urged NYU to "carry the case to the federal courts if it has the opportunity," according to Associated Press reports.

Gasper said the ruling will have reverberations beyond NYU.

"Hopefully [the decision] will lead to more unionization around the country," he said.

According to Harvard Graduate Student Council (GSC) President Lisa L. Laskin, Harvard graduate students are treated comparatively well and have never sought to unionize.

"Unionization is an issue that has never come up in the GSC," she said.

In light of the recent NLRB decision, "it will be interesting to see what graduate students say," said Laskin. "It may generate some discussion that we will need to address."

Sally A. Baker, spokesperson for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said the issue is not yet pressing at Harvard.

"For us, it's still a theoretical issue. There is no official reaction because we're not dealing with this [issue] at the moment."

Baker cited a new financial aid policy that led to an increase in stipends to graduate students as evidence that the University treats its graduate students well.

"At this point Harvard doesn't have a reason to think that things [for graduate students] are not as good as they always have been," she said.

The NLRB decision affects only private universities.

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board ruled two weeks ago that graduate students at Temple University, a state-affiliated school, could form a union. In that decision and the one involving NYU, the labor boards cited a 1999 case where the NLRB declared medical interns and residents at Boston Medical Center to be employees and not students.

NLRB members are appointed by the president to five-year terms. All appointees have to be confirmed by the Senate. All four current members of the board were appointed by President Clinton.