Columbia Graduate Assistants Can Unionize, Board Says

Columbia University graduate research and teaching assistants can be considered employees under federal labor law and are eligible to vote on union representation by a United Auto Workers affiliate, the National Labor Relations Board said Aug. 23 (Columbia University, 2016 BL 273040, N.L.R.B., 364 N.L.R.B. No. 90, 8/23/16).

The NLRB’s widely expected 3-1 decision reverses a 2004 ruling in which the board said graduate assistants at private universities were primarily students and exempt from the National Labor Relations Act. That ruling, involving ...