The Trump Administration is, once again, going after critical protections for working people. The administration is seeking a
rule change that would rob graduate teaching assistants and other
student employees of their rights to organize and collectively bargain.
More background: Trump’s
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claims that collective bargaining
will harm “academic freedom.” However, there is a wealth of evidence to
the contrary.
Public universities have had graduate student
worker unions for 50 years. In 2016, more than 64,000 graduate student
employees were unionized at 28 institutions of higher education in the
public sector. The colleges and universities with union-represented
student employees have not reported a loss of “academic freedom” as the
Trump board suggests.
In reality, union-represented
graduate student employees at public universities have reported that
they enjoy higher levels of personal and professional support than that
reported by non-union represented students. Unionized and
nonunionized student employees report similar perceptions of academic
freedom. However, union-represented graduate student workers did report
receiving higher pay than non-union represented graduate student
workers.
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