The National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that graduate students studying at and working for private universities have the right to unionize, and this has a big impact for Columbia University.

Columbia is actually where it all started: Columbia graduate teaching and research assistants filed a petition to be legally allowed to unionize. This ruling overturned the precedent set by a ruling at Brown University that said the graduate students were primarily students, rather than employees, and their relationship with their respective universities was an academic one. There is, however, an informal precedent set by other public and private schools, like NYU, which voluntarily allowed unionization.

The reason behind the petition is the power of collective bargaining. TAs, RAs, and student researchers employed by the university, both graduate and undergraduate, want the power to bargain with the administration on equal footing. Some of their common concerns include low wages, fluctuating funding, benefits, being paid on time, rising costs of housing, and job security from having TA appointments revoked on short notice (more information about this can be found on their webiste). The goal here isn't to affect academics or grading-- the petitioning students regard their unionization in the capacity of a university employee separate from a university student.

Columbia University-- the institution-- disagrees with the petition. It is their and President Bollinger's opinion that unionization isn't necessary, and they worry about the potential impact on academics. With this ruling, students at Columbia and other private universities may legally form unions, but that's no guarantee that they will.

Could this case set a precedent, and signal a shift to other research-based or high-degree profession forming labor unions? According to the Department for Professional Employees, increasingly more highly-skilled workers are joining unions-- "white collar workers now represent almost 50 percent of the more than 13 million members of AFL-CIO unions and make up its fastest-growing occupational group". This could be because of a workforce transitioning from factory work to automation, or could be telling of a larger, yet-unknown economic change.