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##  Graduate Student Unionization in Higher Education. ERIC Digest.              

INTRODUCTION
The debate over whether graduate student unions have a            place within higher education is heating up on campuses.  The                   suitability of collective bargaining for graduate students is the               contested issue.  Union representatives are on one side of the                  negotiation table arguing that graduate assistants are employees and            deserve collective bargaining rights like other employee groups.                Most faculty and administrators are on the other side, asserting                that graduate assistants are primarily students whose                           responsibilities need not be governed by collective bargaining                  agreements. GRADUATE STUDENTS QUEST FOR UNIONIZATIONGraduate              students entered the unionization movement in 1969 when students at             the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus gained union status.                 Nevertheless, the rally for graduate students to unionize did not               spread until the late 1980s.  Within the last eight years, large                numbers of graduate assistants (GAs) have organized and struck for              recognition.  What caused this rise in activity?  The main reasons              are the following: 
1. There has been a significant increase in the            use of teaching assistants at colleges and universities.  Since                 1975, the number of faculty members who are also graduate students              rose 35 percent (AAUP, 1995).  This growth is largely a result of               cost reduction efforts in higher education institutions.  At large              research institutions, for example, graduate students are                       increasingly seen as a source of cheap labor and are relied upon as             part-time teaching assistants or as a main source of undergraduate              instructors (Nelson, 1995).  As a consequence, the nature of the                graduate students' role has changed to more closely resemble that of            the faculty, while their compensation has remained far below that of            a professor (Aronowitz, 1998). 
2. The use of graduate students as             instructors has further tightened the already competitive academic              job market.  Graduate assistants and part-time faculty fear that                there will not be space for them in the permanent, full-time,                   tenured faculty positions of academia.  Many look to unionization as            a means to securing their current positions and as a way to force               universities to acknowledge their dilemma (Aronowitz, 1998; Barba,              1994). 
GA unionization advocates assert that "until we can reverse            the chronic disinvestment in higher education and restore tenured               positions as the norm, it is likely that universities will increase             their exploitation of cheap labor as student enrollments expand over            the next decade" (AAUP, 1995).  In the long run, scholars predict               that use of graduate students and part-time faculty will result in              fewer full-time jobs available to would-be professors, and a                    decrease in the quality of education delivered (Chase, 2000; Vaughn,            1998; AAUP, 1995, Joseph & Curtiss, 1997; and, Sharnoff,                        1993). THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DEBATEAccording to the                       opponents (mainly university faculty and administrations) of GA                 unionization, graduate students are not employees and are not                   entitled to unionization or benefits.  Students work as part of                 their training or financial aid packages, and this experience                   supplements their education.  GA union adversaries insist that                  graduate student unionization will do more harm than good, and voice            many concerns. 
University administrators fear that graduate                   student unions will negatively affect graduate student and                      university relations, cause strikes and interruptions in education,             and reduce the role that non-union members have in the formation and            delivery of education.  They also have economic concerns.                       Administrators fear that increases in salary and fringe benefits won            by graduate student unions could lead to increased student tuition.             Other worries are that it would interfere with the free exchange of             ideas, causing economic considerations to replace academic                      ones (Barba, 1994). (See Vaughn, 1998, for a response to these                  concerns). 
Faculty share the concerns of the administrators.  This            comes as a surprise to those who watched the faculty unionization               movements of the 1970s.  Sometimes the very professors that once                fought for their own unions now oppose graduate assistant                       unionization.  One scholar speculates that faculty members may                  question motives for graduate student unions, predict a loss of                 comradeship and collegiality, and fear the usurpation of faculty                responsibilities as well as increased rivalry (Sharnoff, 1993).  It             is difficult to assess the validity or prevalence of such                       attitudes. WHERE IS ALL THE ACTION?The National Labor                     Relations Board (NLRB) and state labor relations boards are charged             with the task of deciding whether or not graduate students can be               considered employees.  Public and private organizations have been               viewed differently by the NLRB (See Streitz et al, 1997).  Since                graduate student employment is governed by state labor laws, each               state's graduate student groups must fight the battle in their own              state (Joseph & Curtiss, 1997).  As a result, the type and course of            the battle varies. 
Graduate student movements at both public and              private institutions have been active.  Like faculty unionization               efforts, GA organizations have been enhanced by partnerships with               the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the American Association             of University Professors (AAUP), the National Education                         Association (NEA), and in some cases the United Auto Workers (UAW).             The following are key achievements in the partnerships' struggles               for graduate student unions across the United States: 
1. The first            graduate assistants' union was formed in 1969 at the University of              Wisconsin- Madison campus  (Barba 1994).  (For a list of all                    recognized unions and their organized labor affiliations see Julius,            April 1999). 
2. In 1992, after a series of failed attempts to                 negotiate a contract at University of California at Berkeley, the               Graduate Student Employees struck for recognition (Barba 1994). 
3.            In 1993, the State University of New York (SUNY) Graduate Student               Employee Union was awarded its first contract with the State of New             York (Barba 1994). 
4. In 1995, Yale's Graduate Employee Student               Organization (GESO) withheld student grades in order to force                   recognition of their union.  In 1997, The NLRB filed charges against            Yale for illegal retaliation against graduate students attempting to            unionize (Joseph and Curtiss, 1997). However, the university still              does not recognize GESO (Aronowitz, 1998). 
5. In April, 2000,                 graduate students who teach, grade papers and conduct research at               New York University (NYU), a private university, were granted the               legal right to form a union by the NLRB.  This ruling could open the            door for other private institutions (Leatherman, 2000). 
6. During             litigation over graduate students' efforts to organize at NYU, the              NLRB Regional Director ruled that graduate students are employees.              NYU appealed that ruling to the NLRB in Washington.  On October 31,             2000, the NLRB affirmed the Regional Director's finding. 
7. In the            year 2000, there are unionization recognition battles in Illinois,              Michigan, Connecticut, California and other states. WHAT IMPACT               WILL GRADUATE STUDENT UNIONS HAVE?Though there is much                      speculation on both sides of the debate, to date few studies of the             effects of graduate student unions have been conducted. 
In support            of graduate student unions, Aronowitz observed that universities                without graduate assistant unions and with heavy use of part-time               faculty and graduate assistants experienced stagnation in full-time             faculty salaries (Aronowitz, 1998). Perhaps GA unions will reduce               this effect.  Another study found that graduate student unions have             not damaged professor-graduate student relations (Hewitt, 1999). The            study surveyed faculty members at five universities that have had               graduate student unions for at least four years.  Approximately 90              percent of the respondents claimed that mentoring relationships, the            free exchange of ideas, and the faculty advisory role had not                   suffered because of the unions. 
Yet, unionization is not without              negative consequences for union members as evidenced by the                     University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of                    California Berkeley cases.  University of Massachusetts graduate                students' stipends remained static for two years while contract                 negotiations over other issues were conducted (See                              http://www.yale.edu/opa/gradschool/faq.html#section4).  At UC                   Berkeley, graduate assistants have not received an increase in seven            years also due to lengthy contract negotiations (See                            http://www.yale.edu/opa/gradschool/faq.html#section4).  The lessons             these cases offer should be heeded, so as to avoid replication of               such situations. GUIDELINES TO ADDRESS THE FUTURE OF GRADUATE                 STUDENT UNIONIZATIONThe future of graduate student unionization             is uncertain.  At the present, the path appears to be widening at               public and private (though at a slower rate) higher education                   institutions.  As this trend continues, graduate students interested            in unionizing, state agency officials charged with negotiating                  contracts, and administrators of universities involved in the                   unionization debate, search for guidance.  Until more research is               available, these groups would be wise to pursue two avenues:  1)                colleagues who have already tackled these issues, and 2) the                    literature on existing graduate student union contracts and the                 related struggles. 
Groups interested in unionizing can look to                union activists at organized schools, the Directory of Graduate                 Student Employee Bargaining Agents and Organizations (Lanzerotti et             al, 1995) for histories and contract summaries of GA unions, the                National Association of Graduate-Professional                                   Students (NAGPS) [http://www.nagps.org/] for information on graduate            and professional student groups at all stages of development, and               the Coalition of Graduate Employee                                              Unions (CGEU) [http://www.CGEU.org/] for advice. 
Good resources               for administrators and faculty are the following: 
1. A Chronicle              of Higher Education Handbook entitled "Faculty Collective                       Bargaining" (1976) delineates a twelve-step process, beginning with             organizing and concluding with the administration of a contract,                which can be helpful to administrators, faculty and graduate                    students seeking to understand the collective bargaining                        process. 
2. Barba's 1994 article "The Unionization Movement"                  examines the contracts at the Universities of Florida, Michigan,                Oregon, and Wisconsin, as well as Rutgers, The State University of              New Jersey.  Barba's analysis of these collective bargaining                    agreements reveals a number of similarities which may be                        incorporated as the foundation of future contract                               negotiations (Barba, 1994). 
3. Cary Nelson's (1995) article frames            the current strife over the graduate student as apprentice or                   employee.  Nelson outlines a twelve-step program to help faculty,               graduate students and administrators address the key issues.                    Solutions are also offered. 
These resources, publications, and                precedents can guide the higher education community as graduate                 student unionization efforts hit campuses everywhere.                           Unquestionably, the graduate employee unionization issue and the                ensuing struggles should be watched closely.  The quality of                    teaching and employment within higher education is at                           stake. REFERENCESAmerican Association of University                       Professors (AAUP). (1995). Graduate students. Statement on Graduate             Students.  AAUP Policy Documents and Reports, 1995 Edition. [On-line            statement]                                                                      Available: [http://www.aaup.org/gradst.htm]. 
Annunziato, Frank                R. (1994, Apr/May). Graduate assistants and unionization.                       Newsletter: National Center for The Study of Collective Bargaining              in Higher Education and the Professions. 22, 2. 1 - 4. 
Aronowitz,             S. (1998, Nov/Dec). Are unions good? Academe. 12 - 17. 
Barba,                 W. (1994, November). The unionization movement: An analysis of                  graduate student employee union contracts. Business Officer. pp.                35 - 43. 
Chase, B. (2000, March 20). Interesting times demand a               new unionism. Speech given by NEA president to Baruch College,                  School of Public Affairs National Center for the Study of Collective            Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.  New                        York. [On-line transcription]                                                   Available: [http://www.nea.org/he/bobaru2k.html]. 
Faculty                     Collective Bargaining. (1976). A Chronicle of Higher Education                  Handbook. (2nd Ed.). Washington, DC:  Editorial Projects for                    Education. 
Hewitt, G. (1999). Graduate student unionization: A                description of faculty attitudes and beliefs, Annual Forum of the               Association for Institutional Research.  Quoted in Rabban, D. and               Euben, D. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR                    RELATIONS BOARD NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, Employer: CASE No.  2-RC-22082             and INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE AND                       AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA (UAW), AFL-CIO,                       Petitioner. [On-line]                                                           Available: [http://members.aol.com/gsocuaw/amicus_aaup.html]                    
Joseph, T. & Curtiss, J. (1997, February 21). Why professors                  should support graduate-student unions. The Chronicle of Higher                 Education. [On-line Serial]                                                     Available: [www.chronicle.com]. 
Julius, D. (1999, April ). The                current status of graduate student unions: An employer's                        perspective. Collective Bargaining and Accountability in Higher                 Education: A Report Card.  National Center for the Study of                     Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.  New             York: Baruch College, The City University of New York. 
Lanzerotti,            R., Hayes, M., & Curtiss, J. (1995).  Directory of graduate student             employee  bargaining agents and organizations. New York: The                    National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher                Education and the Professions. 
Leatherman, C. (2000, April 14)                NLRB ruling may demolish the barriers to T.A. unions at private                 universities. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 
Nelson,                      Cary. (1995). Lessons from the job wars: What is to be done?                    Academe, 81(6), 18-25. 
Sharnoff, E. (1993). Neither fish nor fowl:            Graduate students, unionization, and the academy. Paper presented at            the Annual Meeting of the Modern Language Association (Toronto,                 Ontario, Canada, December 27-30, 1993). 
Streitz, D.S., & Hunkler,             J.A. (1997). Teaching or learning: Are teaching assistants students             or employees? Journal of College and University Law 24(2),                      349-75. 
Vaughn, W. (1998, Nov/Dec). Apprentice or employee?                   Graduate students and their unions. Academe. 43 - 49. 
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