NLRB Concludes That Student Assistants Can Unionize

On August 23, 2016, the National Labor Relations Board overturned its prior precedent in Brown University and concluded that student assistants—including both graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants—at private colleges and universities may be considered statutory employees who can organize and bargain over the terms and conditions of their employment.

The Board's decision in Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York involved Columbia University graduate students who work as teaching assistants. The Graduate Workers of Columbia Union filed a petition to represent the teaching assistants. NLRB personnel initially concluded that the student assistants were primarily students and could not organize, consistent with the Board's prior ruling in Brown University, 342 NLRB 1205 (2004). The union appealed this initial determination to the five-member Board in Washington, DC. The Board reversed, concluding that "student assistants who have a common-law