University fails to block hearings on grade strike

By Lee Nagao

In a preliminary victory for GESO, federal judge Michael Miller decided not to dismiss charges of unfair labor practices brought against Yale by the National Labor Relations Board. The motion to dismiss the charges was submitted on Fri., Apr. 11, by the University and was turned down on Mon., Apr. 14, the first day of the hearings. The NLRB filed the charges in response to the University's actions toward teaching assistants during last year's grade strike.

"The University did not only break [federal labor] law, but also behaved outside the norms of professional conduct," GESO co-chair Eloise Pasachoff, GRD '01, said.

At the heart of the argument is the question of whether graduate students at Yale can be considered employees. According to Thomas Conroy, acting director of public affairs, "the University did not engage in unfair labor practice because the students are not employees. The University's action was an appropriate reaction to the students' behavior."

The recent ruling, however, opens the floor for debate on this subject. "The administration has been saying for the past six months that the position of TAs has been settled, but [the decision] demonstrates that it is not settled. It is an open question," Pasachoff said.

In proceedings that may last for several months, lawyers for GESO and the NLRB hope to obtain federal recognition of Yale's graduate students as employees so that students can subsequently exercise their right to unionize.

In its motion to dismiss the students' complaint, the University cited legal precedence in the form of earlier rulings by the NLRB that denied employee status to graduate students, stating that teaching is an integral part of their education. These included several cases from the 1970s which involved universities such as Adelphi and Stanford.

According to Pasachoff, there are differences between these previous cases and the Yale/GESO situation. The case involving Adelphi was "primarily one of representation," she said. "[There] the question was whether graduate students and faculty should belong to the same union, and not about graduate students belonging to a union."

"By [denying Yale's motion], the judge is saying that those cases are not clear," Gordon Lafer, GRD '95 said.

"The fact that the motion was denied was not unexpected," Conroy added. "Our position will be straightforward [in the subsequent proceedings]. Graduate students at Yale are first and foremost students--they weren't hired by Yale, they enrolled at Yale."

One of Yale's biggest concerns is that the student-mentor relationship would be corrupted by changing it to that of employee-employer. "Faculties ought to be able to shape their programs free from the burdens of collective bargaining," Conroy said.

The graduate student unions that presently exist are found only in public universities and were formed through rulings in the state courts and not through the NLRB.

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