Catherwood Library

June 2002

PLEASE NOTE: The Reference Question of the Month is kept current only during the month for which it was written. Archived questions will not be updated, and over time may contain inaccurate information or broken web links. We provide archived questions as a service, since much of the information will remain accurate and of continued interest to the ILR community.

Question: Can graduate students and/or teaching assistants organize a union?

Answer: Whether or not graduate students and teaching assistants are considered employees is being decided by state labor boards and the National Labor Relations Board.

Here are some resources that may provide useful information:

Associations, Directories, and Miscellaneous

• National Association of Graduate-Professional Students
• The Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions
• Relevant Links, including recent legal decisions
• Cornell Association of Student Employees
• Yahoo's Graduate Student Unions listing
• State University Graduate Student Negotiating Unit Collective Bargaining Agreement
• Directory of graduate student employee bargaining agents and organizations / New York, NY : National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, School of Public Affairs, Baruch College, City University of New York, c1995 (latest edition available) ILR Library Reference LB2335.885.U6 D59

Articles

• Graduate Student Unionization in Higher Education
• Special Report about Unionization at NYU
• Critical Issue Bibliography (CRIB) Sheet -- Collective Bargaining in Higher Education
• Collective Bargaining in American Higher Education (Preliminary Draft, 4/2/2002, Comments Solicited) Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Daniel B. Klaff, Adam T. Kezsbom and Matthew P. Nagowski

Databases

Search for article abstracts and selected full text on this topic in the following library databases: ERIC ABI/Inform Business Source Premier Sociological Abstracts Alternative Press Index

— Researched by sac29