Talking Stick - September/October 2017 - 48

A political timeline of student worker status

2017
1972

1999

2004

2016

As early as 1972,
the NLRB held
that graduate
student assistants
were "primarily
students" and could
not be included in
a bargaining unit of
regular faculty.

In 1999, a
Democratically
controlled NLRB
reversed course and
found that interns,
residents, and fellows
were employees
within the meaning
of the Act. Nothing
significant had
changed, other than
the composition of the
Board.

A Republican majority
took control of the
Board under the
administration of
President George
W. Bush, and, in
2004, in the Brown
University case,
the NLRB reversed
itself and held that
graduate assistants
were "primarily
students" who
were not entitled to
engage in collective
bargaining.

Under the Obamainfluenced Board
in a 2016 decision
involving Columbia
University, the
Democratic-majority
NLRB reversed the
Brown decision and
held that graduate
teaching and research
assistants, as well
as undergraduate
teaching assistants,
were "employees"
under the Act.

free housing) could be considered an
employee eligible to be represented
by a union. This could presumably
include student government officers
who receive compensation for their
service, orchestra members who are
compensated, or any of a host of other
academic-related opportunities that
carry some sort of compensation with
the opportunity.
All this means that right now all
students who are compensated for
their services are fair game for union
organizing. And even if the NLRB
reverses the Columbia decision, it
might still permit RAs to organize
because they do not necessarily occupy
academic positions.
The potential unionization of
residence life undergraduates poses
significant challenges for private sector
institutions. Most residence life professionals consider RAs to be student

TALKING STICK

leaders who perform a critical role in
the undergraduate educational experience. They foster an environment in
which students learn from each other
outside the classroom. They serve as
role models, multicultural liaisons,
problem-solving resources, emotional
supporters, informal crisis counselors,
substance-abuse educators, conflict
managers, financial counselors, activity
organizers, and community builders.

President Donald Trump has
nominated two Republican attorneys
to the Board, and, once confirmed,
there will be a Republican majority
on the NLRB. Many observers are
predicting another flip-flop,
believing that the Board will reverse
the Columbia decision and return to
the Brown standard.

To many, student leadership is the
essence of the RA position. RAs typically must meet minimum educational
standards; they must participate in
training about the myriad issues they
are likely to confront; and they often
have to take credit courses, participate
in seminars about their work, or otherwise document their experience in
their role.

to engage in collective bargaining with
them about wages, hours, and other
terms and conditions of RA employment. It is possible that such bargaining would intrude into the unique educational interchange between RAs and
their fellow students in several ways. It
might deny students the benefit of an
RA's counsel during the RA's off hours.
Grievances relating to RA performance
issues could involve disclosure of information that would violate the privacy
of the students served by the RAs.
Most importantly, collective bargaining
about the job duties and conditions
of RAs could intrude on the academic
freedom of colleges and universities to
determine the means and methods by
which the residential component of the
undergraduate educational experience
should be structured.

If RAs were to be represented by a
union, though, institutions would have

The prospect that RAs would
unionize raises a host of questions.

Talking Stick - September/October 2017

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