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 ...