Global InformationGraduate student employee unionization information
 | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (July 2023) |
Graduate student employee unionization, or academic 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 2014, there were at least 33 US graduate employee unions, 18 unrecognized unions in the United States, and 23 graduate employee unions in Canada.[1] By 2019, it is estimated that there were 83,050 unionized student employees in certified bargaining units in the United States.[2] As of 2023, there were at least 156 US graduate student employee unions and 23 graduate student employee unions in Canada.[3]
Prior to the 2000s, almost all US graduate employee unions were located in public universities, most of which formed during the 1990s. However, that is no longer true today with many private universities now being organized. In 2014, New York University's Graduate Student Organizing Committee, affiliated with the United Automobile Workers (UAW), became the first graduate employee union recognized by a private university in the US.[4] In September 2018, Brandeis University became the second private university to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement for graduate student employees,[5] followed by Tufts University in October 2018[6] and Harvard in July 2020.[7] American University and New School were in the process of negotiating an agreement as of September 2018.[5] Many of these unions refer to their workers as Academic Student Employees (ASEs) to reflect the fact that their membership may also include undergraduate students working in represented job classifications. In 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposed a new rule that said graduate students are not employees, which could affect unionization efforts at private universities, although the final rule has yet to be published.[8]
Labor laws in the United States and Canada permit collective bargaining for only limited classes of student-employees. In the US, public and private institutions have different authorities governing collective bargaining rights. In public universities, state labor laws determine collective bargaining and employee recognition. In private universities, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has power to determine whether graduate students are considered employees, which would give them collective bargaining rights. The NLRB ruled that graduate students at private universities are employees in a 3–1 decision on August 23, 2016,[9] setting the stage for widespread unionization efforts at universities such as Columbia, Johns Hopkins University, University of Chicago, Duke, Yale, Cornell, and Harvard.
In the U.S., many university administrators and university associations like the Association of American Universities have vigorously opposed the unionization of graduate student employees on their campuses through legal challenges on the grounds that unionization threatens academic freedom of institutions and harms the relationship between faculty and students, although recent research suggests that unionization neither negatively affects academic freedom nor harms faculty-student relationships.[10] Many faculty associations like the American Association of University Professors support the right of graduate students to form unions.
In Finland and Sweden, for instance, graduate students are often regular employees and are represented by their respective professional unions, such as member unions of Akava in Finland.[11]
- ^ Coalition of Graduate Student Employees. Retrieved on November 26, 2014
- ^ Herbert, William A.; Apkarian, Jacob; van der Naald, Joseph (2020). 2020 Supplementary Directory of New Bargaining Agents and Contracts in Institutions of Higher Education, 2013-2019 (Report). National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions. p. 24.
- ^ List of graduate student employee unions
- ^ Canfield, Matt (9 January 2014). "Grad Employees Re-Unionize at New York University—First in the Country". Labor Notes.
- ^ a b Flaherty, Colleen (September 5, 2018). "Brandeis grad students win significant gains in union contract, even as Trump administration has exerted influence on NLRB". Inside Higher Ed.
- ^ "Tufts Graduate Students Strike First Labor Contract Deal With University". WBUR. Associated Press. 11 October 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
- ^ "Harvard student workers vote to ratify first union contract One-year agreement includes victories on discrimination protections, healthcare, and childcare" (Press release). UAW. 2020-06-30. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
- ^ Langin, Katie (2019-09-20). "Grad student unions dealt blow as proposed new rule says students aren't 'employees'". Science. doi:10.1126/science.caredit.aaz5827. ISSN 0036-8075. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
- ^ "Board: Student Assistants Covered by the NLRA | NLRB". Archived from the original on 2018-03-07. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
- ^ Rogers, Sean E.; Eaton, Adrienne E.; Voos, Paula B. (2013). "Effects of Unionization on Graduate Student Employees: Faculty-Student Relations, Academic Freedom, and Pay". ILR Review. 66 (2): 487–510. doi:10.1177/001979391306600208. hdl:1813/71794. S2CID 13184127.
- ^ "Ammattiliitot" [Trade Unions]. Vaasan yliopisto (in Finnish). 23 May 2012.