December 6, 2011
For more information, please contact Cary Nelson.
The AAUP Executive Committee and the standing Committee on Graduate and Professional Students call upon the Obama administration and every remaining member of the NLRB to reverse the board's 2004 decision to withdraw the right of graduate student employees at private universities to choose unionization through a democratic vote. We deplore the seven years that graduate student employees at private universities have waited for the approval of what the United Nations regards as a basic human right—the right of any employee group to choose collective bargaining.
The 2004 decision of the NLRB stands as an exceptionally undemocratic denial of employees' rights to have a voice in their future and working conditions. This denial is particularly egregious in the case of graduate student employees, as they otherwise have no say in the policies that govern their salaries, benefits, and working conditions. Unlike many faculty, they cannot address these issues through any shared governance structure—they do not have a document comparable to a faculty handbook.
An NLRB ruling to reverse the 2004 decision is all the more important now, at a moment when political leaders and their constituencies from across the political spectrum agree that quality higher education will be a crucial component of any national economic recovery. Voters have recognized that giving academic employees a voice in the workplace is an important part of the quality of work they perform. In Ohio, voters have just repealed legislation that would have stripped collective bargaining rights from all faculty at public colleges and universities (in addition to removing collective bargaining for all public employees throughout the state).
The AAUP Executive Committee and the standing Committee on Graduate and Professional Students therefore support the NYU Graduate Student Organizing Committee's April 2010 petition for the NLRB to rule on its case for union recognition. We also support the Graduate Students United at the University of Chicago, as well as their campaign to secure the legal right to unionize for private universities through an NLRB decision. In only two weeks, this "Grad Labor Counts" campaign has garnered over 1600 signatures from graduate student employees, faculty, students, and community allies nationwide.
It is increasingly clear that graduate student employees deserve the right to unionize. The Obama administration and the remaining members of the NLRB must have the courage to right the 2004 ruling.
Sign a petition supporting this effort: (http://gradlaborcounts.org). See pictures of grad student employees delivering petitions to the National Labor Relations Board on December 14.