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Labor board says grad students on private campuses are 'employees,' free to unionize

By Doug G. Ware

NEW YORK, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- A U.S. labor board decided Tuesday that student assistants at private colleges and universities are considered "employees" of the schools, which means they have the right to unionize if they wish.

The National Labor Relations Board voted 3-1 in a case involving assistants at Columbia University in New York City who petitioned to join a labor union nearly two years ago.

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In its decision, the panel effectively acknowledged that graduate assistants are covered under federal labor law, because there is no clear language in the National Labor Relations Act that prevents their right to unionize.

The ruling reverses a 2004 decision involving Brown University the NLRB said "deprived an entire category of workers of the protections of the Act without a convincing jurisdiction."

"For 45 years, the National Labor Relations Board has exercised jurisdiction over private, nonprofit universities such as Columbia. In that time, the Board has had frequent cause to apply the Act to faculty in the university setting, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court," the board said in a statement. "Federal courts have made clear that the authority to define the term "employee" rests primarily with the Board absent an exception enumerated within the National Labor Relations Act."

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The decision remands the matter to the board's Manhattan office for further action.

The NLRB oversees workplace disputes and union matters in the private sector, which includes private college institutions.

NLRB decision on private student assistants

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