News & Commentary March 24, 2023

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/march-26-2023-2/

By Julio Colby

Julio Colby is a student at Harvard Law School.

In Today’s News and Commentary: Duke University announces it will oppose graduate student workers’ petition to unionize; NLRB prosecutors find merit to unfair labor practice charges filed against Amazon; Starbucks investors vote on independent audit to determine company’s compliance with labor laws.

On Monday, Duke University announced it will oppose its graduate student workers’ petition to unionize. Instead, the university will argue that its PhD students are ineligible to unionize because they are not employees of the school. The decision runs counter to the tide of schools accepting their students’ organizing efforts, as well the NLRB’s policy recognizing student workers’ right to organize. Although the argument is likely to fail before the Democrat-controlled NLRB, it could prevail in federal circuit court, which would hear any appeal from a negative Board decision. The Board’s recognition of a student workers’ right to unionize — first in 2000, then again in 2016 after a reversal by a Republican-led Board in 2004 — has not yet been reviewed by a federal appeals court. Duke’s challenge could be the first to reach the courts, but it may take months or years for it to get there as it will have to go through the Board’s processes first.

FULL story at link.