Graduate students are pushing back against a proposed rule change by the National Labor Relations Board that would exempt them from the definition of"employee," which they say will give more power to universities in the fight for what students consider is fair compensation.
Graduate student union movements have prompted universities to increase wages and stipends and to offer additional insurance to employees who didn't have access to the benefits. If graduate students, many of whom teach courses and assist professors with research, are exempt from the definition of"employees" under the National Labor Relations Act , universities won't be legally required to engage in collective bargaining.
"Graduate students do labor that keeps the university running and if graduate workers were no longer helping the university function, the university would fall apart," Lacy Murphy, a Ph.D. candidate from Washington University in St. Louis toldLast semester, Murphy taught a"gateway" course that hundreds of architectural students are required to take each year.
The NLRA doesn't expressly include or exclude students in its definition of an employee so it's up to the board to decide. During the past two decades, the NLRB issued three different rulings about whether it considers graduate students employees.
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