Hey Big Labor: They're students, not workers

Graduate students are, well, students. But to Big Labor they can be dues-paying piggy banks. Which is some unions are trying to bulk up their membership by trying to organize them.

The University of Michigan's Board of Regents, over the opposition of its president, played right into the hands of the union bosses, said they were employees.

The Workforce Fairness Institutes Fred Wszolek, a Michigander, writes about his home state--and passes on the good news that this error is being fixed.

Over and over, Big Labor's overreaches have played out throughout the nation. With little concern for those impacted, the Board of Regents in Michigan and their friends in organized labor used young people in a quest for more money and political leverage.

But this past week, the Michigan House followed the state Senate and reversed the Board of Regents and voted to affirm that the university’s 2,200 graduate student research assistants are students, not public employees, and that educational decision-making cannot, and should not, be made subject to a collective bargaining process.

The reason for excluding graduate students from the right to collectively bargain is neither anti-worker nor anti-union; it is common sense. Rights to collectively bargain apply to workers who have primarily an economic relationship with their employer. The right to bargain involves bargaining over the terms and conditions of employment, such as wages, benefits and working conditions. Granting that right when the relationship is not primarily economic will interfere with the purpose of the relationship. This is exactly the case with students.

GRSAs are admitted to the university, not hired by it, and perform research for academic credit and to obtain a degree. The services they perform for the university are an integral part of the educational program. The faculty advisor is not their employer. He or she is their tutor, mentor and colleague. And any stipend the GSRA receives from the university is for financial support. It is not dependent on the intrinsic value of the services provided or the skill of the recipient. Granting collective bargaining rights over such issues as the graduate student’s duties or hours and the stipend they receive is wholly at odds with the educational relationship.

Public-sector union overreach in Detroit will be the subject of my next post.

Related post:

Union goonery against graduate assistants? Yep.

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