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AAUP Supports Graduate Students’ Union Bids
The AAUP has filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the right of teaching assistants at Brown and Columbia Universities to bargain collectively. Regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board, which administers the law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector, ruled in November 2001 that teaching assistants at Brown could unionize; in February 2002 it ruled that those at Columbia could do so. Union elections, in which TAs voted by secret ballot on whether they want union representation, have been held at both institutions. The administrations at both institutions are appealing the rulings to the full labor board, and the election results will not be released unless the board agrees that the TAs are eligible for representation. In the briefs, the Association explains that "both national AAUP policies on faculty collective bargaining and local AAUP faculty union experience demonstrate that collective bargaining is not only consistent with, but can promote, academic freedom." The AAUP supports the right of graduate students who are employees to unionize if they wish, and has found that their doing so is compatible with the faculty-student mentoring relationship.
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