NLRB Rules Student Employees Can Unionize

In a game-changing decision reversing clear legal precedent, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled by a 3-1 margin today that university students who work as teaching and research assistants at private universities are "statutory employees" under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and can organize to form unions (Columbia University). The ruling applies to both graduate and undergraduate students who perform work, at the direction of the university, for which they are compensated. It will require private universities to immediately conform their practices to adjust to this new era of labor law.

The Decision

Colleges and universities have felt comfortable for quite some time because the legal landscape has consistently held that graduate students were considered to be primarily students and not university employees. In 2004, the NLRB issued a ruling stating that graduate students could not organize into unions, pointing out that their relationship