[Imc-newsroom] Nader on WILL TV

[Sascha Meinrath]

just something to be excited about:

--sascha                                                               


          November 2, 2000

          U.S. Panel Allows Union Organizing by
          Postgraduates

          By KAREN W. ARENSON

               he National Labor Relations Board has ruled for the first time
that
               graduate students who work as research and teaching assistants
at
          private colleges and universities have the right to form unions to
negotiate
          wages, benefits and other conditions of employment.

          The ruling Tuesday, in a case involving graduate student assistants
at
          New York University, reverses the board's position from the mid-
          1970's, and will make it easier for graduate students to unionize. 

          Labor experts said that the ruling, announced yesterday, would
probably
          spur organizing efforts on many campuses. But organizers face
obstacles,
          because prospective members are graduate students for a limited
period
          and they have loyalties both as students and employees, said Thomas
A.
          Kochan, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the
          Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

          "I don't expect this to set off a firestorm of organizing at all of
the top
          universities," he said, "but it is likely to have an effect at
some."


          Despite the difficulties, Julie Kushner, subregional director for
the
United
          Automobile Workers, which has worked to organize the N.Y.U.
          students, was optimistic. 

          "There is no question that this is going to spread," she said,
noting
that
          she has been receiving calls from graduate students across the
country
          since April, when the labor board's regional director in New York
said
          the students had a legal right to form a union. 

          Columbia University was one campus where students had expressed
          interest, she said. And she predicted that the ruling would give
unionizing
          efforts at Yale, where graduate students have been trying to
unionize
for
          years, "a shot in the arm."

          Although efforts to organize graduate assistants in private
universities
          have been slow, unionization at public universities has grown in
many
          states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, California and New York. Like
          government employees, public university graduate assistants are not
          covered by the National Labor Relations Act; their efforts to
unionize are
          covered under state laws.

          Officials at N.Y.U. and other universities quickly attacked the
decision,
          saying that the introduction of collective bargaining in the
relationship
          between graduate students and professors would diminish the graduate
          educational experience.

          "There is a strong risk," said Robert Berne, vice president for
academic
          and health affairs at N.Y.U., "that decisions about courses,
curriculum
          and who is going to teach will be decided in a collective bargaining
          setting, diminishing the quality of American higher education." 

          Richard C. Levin, president of Yale, also was critical. He said the
          decision reversed a precedent that has "helped to ensure that our
system
          of higher education remains the world's very best." He added, "I
would
          urge N.Y.U. to carry the case to the federal courts if it has the
          opportunity." 

          N.Y.U. officials said they had not decided whether to push the
matter
          into the courts, since they wanted to consult with people on
campus. 

          Several higher education associations and some selective private
          universities — including Columbia, Johns Hopkins, M.I.T., Stanford
and
          Yale — had filed briefs supporting N.Y.U.'s position.

          The decision by the labor board came in a unanimous vote by a three-
          member panel, including the chairman, John C. Truesdale; one member,
          Peter J. Hurtgen, also filed a concurring opinion.

          The decision said the panel members rejected the argument that
graduate
          assistants who were predominantly students could not also be
          employees. "The uncontradicted and salient facts establish that
graduate
          assistants perform services under the control and direction of the
          employer, and they are compensated for these services by the
employer,"
          the decision said.

          Noting that the students are paid for their work and are carried on
the
          payroll, the decision added, "The graduate assistants' relationship
with the
          employer is thus indistinguishable from a traditional master-
servant
          relationship."

          The decision did not spell out why the board was revamping this
policy
          now. But labor experts said that the issue had become ripe as union
          organizing at universities — and among graduate assistants — has
grown.

          "There has been a significant increase in graduate student
organizing,"
          said Richard Hurd, a Cornell University professor of labor studies. 

          There is still no certainty that an N.Y.U. graduate assistant union
will be
          formed. About 1,500 N.Y.U. graduate students (of about 1,700 who
          were eligible) voted last spring on whether they wanted to be
represented
          by the United Automobile Workers after Daniel Silverman, the labor
          board's regional director in New York, said the students had a legal
right
          to form a union. But the ballots were impounded when the university
said
          it would appeal the decision. 

          Mr. Silverman has since left the board. But his successor, Celeste
          Mattina, said yesterday that she would contact the parties in the
election
          within a week and arrange for the ballots to be counted. If the
results
          show that the students approved representation by the U.A.W., N.Y.U.
          could not appeal directly, but it could push the matter into the
courts by
          refusing to negotiate with the union. Then the union would complain
to the
          labor board, which could bring the matter to court.

          Jonathan Hiatt, general counsel for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. in Washington,
and
          several other labor experts said that recent Supreme Court decisions
          suggested that the board's ruling could well survive a court test.

          "The N.L.R.B. has a good record of being upheld in the Supreme Court
          in recent years," said Dr. Kochan of M.I.T., "and it will
probably be
          upheld here." 

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