Michigan Education

As private grad students look to unionize, public union offers roadmap

Michigan Public | By Stateside Staff

Published September 12, 2016 at 5:04 PM EDT

A protest held by the Graduate Employees and Students Organization protest at Yale in 2005, calling for the return of collective bargaining rights that were taken away from graduate student employees the year before.

Our conversation with John Ware, president of the Graduate Employees Organization at the University of Michigan.

TheNational Labor Relations Boardhas done a complete about-face.

The Board recently voted three to one that graduate students who work as teaching or research assistants at private universities are indeed employees, and they have a right to collective bargaining.

That ruling overturns a 2004 Bush-era ruling that took those bargaining rights away.

John Ware is the president of the Graduate Employees Organization at the University of Michigan. He joined us today to talk about how this ruling might affect working conditions, pay and benefits for all graduate employees.(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast oniTunes,Google Play, or with thisRSS link)