Dive Brief:
- The Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees announced in a letter to university President John J. DeGioia members wanted to be formally recognized as a labor union and that the American Federation of Teachers would be their bargaining agent, according to Inside Higher Ed.
- The letter explained many higher ed institutions, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and the University of Chicago, had been critical of President Donald Trump, but had been supportive of changes to the National Labor Relations Board that would weaken the strength of unionization efforts on campuses.
- The NLRB decided in 2016 that graduate assistants were to be designated as 'employees,' not students, and therefore had the right to enter into a collective bargaining process. And, Georgetown's graduate assistants say the school should adhere to it's "just employment policy," which allows employees at the school to organize freely and to "vote for or against union representation" without pressure or intimidation.
Dive Insight:
Graduate students are not the only group on college campuses seeking to unionize. Regional director for the NLRB ruled in April that residential advisors at George Washington University could do this, though the institution threatened to sue, in order to prevent the move. But right now, schools are still unsure of what will happen next with the NRLB; President Trump needs to fill open positions, and those members may be against campus unionization efforts. But, it's clear that unionization efforts would have a significant impact on schools. Graduate assistants account for about 10% of the faculty workforce across the nation's schools, and the move could cost the nation's top institutions as much as $11 million more each year with additional benefits.
At the same time, institutions should be aware that a fight against unionization could have on a school in terms of attracting top research talent. If graduate assistants feel they will not have opportunities for employment protections, they may opt to enroll in school elsewhere, and professors may do the same if they are not confident that the graduate assistant pool on a particular campus will be robust or dedicated. This may not necessarily impact the top research institutions — which have reputations that would likely supersede any kind of hesitation on the part of graduate assistants, but other, less acclaimed research institutions curtailing unionization efforts could see pushback.