Cornell Student Contests Organizing Rights in Higher Ed (1)

A Cornell University graduate student is challenging the National Labor Relations Board’s Obama-era precedent granting organizing rights to college student workers.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an anti-union advocacy organization, announced Monday it’s representing doctoral candidate Russell Burgett in his case contesting the NLRB’s 2016 ruling in Columbia University.

Burgett’s case could give the NLRB something it didn’t have during the first Trump administration: a vehicle to overturn the Columbia decision. But the board can’t rule on anything until it has at least three members.

Unions seeking to represent college student workers strategically withdrew cases during ...