Are they Students? Or are they Employees? NLRB Rules that Graduate Students are Employees
The Washington Post reports on the NLRB’s landmark ruling clearing the way for graduate students to organize unions on their campusesL
“The National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday that graduate students who work as teaching and research assistants at private universities are school employees, clearing the way for them to join or form unions that administrators must recognize.
Debates about the role and rights of graduate students have emerged as more universities rely on low-paid adjuncts and doctoral students, rather than full-time professors, to teach — a model that has been widely criticized as exploitative. Though adjuncts are making inroads in their fight for higher wages, graduate students have struggled, in part, because the work they do is often a component of their education.”
