NLRB Decision In Brown University: Graduate Student Assistants Have No Right To Engage In Collective Bargaining

Mondaq Business Briefing, November, 2004 by S. Richard Pincus

By S. Richard Pincus (Chicago)

Originally published October 2004

In a decision involving an effort by the United Auto Workers to organize graduate students' assistants at Brown University, a majority of the members of the National Labor Relations Board held that since they are not "employees" under Section 2(3) of the National Labor Relations Act, they have no right to engage in collective bargaining. 342 NLRB No. 42 (July 13, 2004). This decision by a Board majority appointed by the Bush administration, reversed an earlier decision by the Clinton Board in a case involving New York University. See New York University, 332 NLRB 1205 (2000) (NYU). NYU, in turn, had reversed more than 25 years of Board precedent that graduate student assistants were not...