Teaching Assistants are Told: No Union

Friday, July 16

by Justin Pope, AP Education Writer

Sheyda Jahanbani may be a student, but her life at Brown University in Providence, R.I. feels more like a job. There are long hours of teaching, a boss who gives orders, and she depends on her income to pay the bills. But in a 3-2 vote Thursday, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Jahanbani and other graduate students at America's private universities are students, not workers.

That means they can't form unions to negotiate wages, health care and workplace grievance procedures.

"Clearly, anybody who starts grad school understands there are going to be sacrifices," said Jahanbani, 27, who is pursuing a doctorate in American history. "At the same time, there are basic rights any employee has the right to expect. Health care. A decent wage. Some respect in the workplace."

The decision, in a case involving Brown, is a victory for private universities, which depend on relatively inexpensive graduate student labor to teach classes. Nearly a quarter of college instructors are graduate students, according to evidence cited in the ruling.

The universities also maintain that what they pay students is simply financial aid, not income, and graduate student unionizing could upset an academic apprenticeship system that has existed for decades.

"It's an important decision for private research universities in that it restores the traditional relationship between graduate research and teaching assistants and the university," said Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education, which represents universities.

But pro-union graduate students decried the decision as politically motivated and anti-labor. Three Republican appointees of President Bush (news - web sites) voted in the majority — overturning a 2000 decision involving New York University — while two Democrats dissented.

The students also said the board failed to appreciate how drastically graduate student life has changed over the last 30 years. Students must teach more now, which means their degrees take longer, and they are more likely to have families to support.

"It is work, and it's an essential part of the university," said John Harwood, an art history graduate student at Columbia University in New York.

The NLRB, a government agency, deals with private employers and has no jurisdiction over public universities and colleges, which are governed by state laws. Those laws vary but unions are recognized by many public universities, including the University of California system, the University of Wisconsin, Michigan State and the University of Michigan.

There are more than 2 million graduate and professional students, according to the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students. About 44 percent of graduate students attend private universities, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Education (news - web sites) statistics.

NYU is the only private university that's recognized a graduate student union. In 2002, graduate students there negotiated stipend increases of up to 40 percent, as well as improved health care benefits.

But that contract comes up for renewal next year, and NYU issued a statement saying it was still considering how it would proceed in light of the ruling.

"The impact of the contract was huge," said Elena Gorfinkel, a graduate student in cinema studies, who will have an $18,000 stipend next year, considerably higher than in the past. "It made the university accountable to us in a way."

Groups at several other private universities, including Brown, Columbia, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania and Tufts, are pushing for union recognition, but their efforts suffered a major setback with the decision.

Support for unionizing is by no means universal among graduate students, however. Last year, union backers at Yale called an unofficial vote, hoping for an overwhelming show of support for union recognition. To their embarrassment, the measure failed.

Several graduate students said they weren't surprised that a Republican-controlled NLRB would reverse the NYU decision.

"I'm more disappointed in Brown University, in these leaders of prestigious universities that are beacons of progressive politics," Jahanbani said. "I'm surprised that (Brown), this bastion of progressive thought, would hand such a juicy morsel over to the anti-labor movement."