Harvard TFs Say They Don't Need a Union

After the National Labor Relations Board ruled Monday that New York University (NYU) graduate student teaching assistants have the right to unionize, many Harvard teaching fellows (TFs) said they were satisfied with their situation and doubted that there would be any need for them to unionize.

If it is ultimately upheld by the courts, the ruling will give graduate student teaching assistants at private universities the right to unionize and negotiate with universities over their pay and benefits.

Until the NYU ruling, no graduate students at private universities were unionized, according to a press release from the Federation of University Employees at Yale, where graduate students have been attempting to organize for several years.

NYU argued that because teaching is an integral part of the graduate student learning experience, teaching assistants should not be allowed to bargain collectively--a stance that some Harvard TFs supported.

For example, Steven B. Most, head TF for Psychology 1: "Introduction to Psychology," said teaching had benefits aside from compensation and therefore was not a regular job.

"I think it's good that the teaching they do is work," Most said, referring to the NYU graduate teaching assistants. "But I do think that the teaching itself should be considered a learning experience for the graduate student."

Other TFs, however, said that without the right to organize, they could one day face problems typical of marginalized American workers.

Richard Dearborn, a post-doctoral fellow and head TF for Biological Sciences 1: " Introductory Genetics, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology," said the ruling had his full support.

"I'm a big advocate of it for the simple fact that in situations where student bodies as a group are unable to unionize, they have no recourse, no resources and no real ability to have issues addressed at a legal level," he said.

"If you're going to use these individuals in a capacity as employees and try to skirt around it by saying they're students, it's completely unfair to the graduate students," Dearborn added. "It's sort of a labor pool they're able to abuse."

Although critics of the ruling have argued that allowing TFs to unionize would damage their working relationship with their professors, Ascherman Professor of Economics Richard B. Freeman, an expert on labor relations, said he did not think that would present a problem.

"I don't think it would affect their relationship at all because the union would be negotiating with the administration," he said.

Dearborn, who worked on a unionized teaching staff at the State University of New York at Albany before coming to Harvard, agreed that unionization would not strain TF-professor relationships.

"I think that's sort of rhetoric that's thrown out by opponents [of the ruling]," Dearborn said. "In many cases teachers have unions, so my experience at the University of New York was that [the professors] supported us, whether it be above-table or not."

In contrast to at NYU, where teaching assistants have asked for more pay, housing and increased medical coverage, many TFs at Harvard say they are happy with their terms of employment.

"Harvard pays well, gives good benefits, and from what I've seen and heard from other graduate students, Harvard is more generous than other private universities," TF Corey M. O'Hara said.

TFs also said that even if they saw a need to do so, organizing would be difficult because graduate students are kept busy by their studies.

At some private institutions, graduate students have been trying to unionize for years, to no avail. At Yale, President Richard C. Levin has stated his continued opposition to giving graduate students collective bargaining rights and encouraged NYU to appeal the decision.

"I don't expect any administrator to support unions because unions reduce their power," Freeman said.

However, Freeman said he thought that if Harvard graduate student TFs decided to unionize, Harvard's administrators would act differently from Yale's.

"I don't think they'd be as stupid as I've seen the Yale administration be," he said. "Yale has a long history of being a jerk in this area. And Harvard has got a very good relationship with its unions so I think that Harvard would be more mature and sensible."

When asked how the administration would respond if TFs here decided to unionize, University spokesperson Joe Wrinn said Harvard did not have any comment at this time, but added that the University has a "very good history of collective bargaining with the unions that operate out of Harvard."