Catherwood LibraryILR School

Whether student employees at private universities have the right to unionize has been a contentious issue at the National Labor Relations Board, whose rulings over the years have varied depending on the political composition of the board. In 2016, the board had ruled in favor of graduate student workers unionizing at Columbia University. Now, Grinnell College administrators have filed an appeal to that decision, as they face the prospect that their undergraduate students are asking for the right to be unionized for all student employees, not just the dining student workers which had voted to unionize in 2016 . As with previous cases before the NLRB, college administrators question whether student teaching assistants can be considered employees when their work is considered part of their financial aid package and part of their educational experience. The Grinnell case is unusual because previous attempts at unionizing at various universities have been over whether graduate students had rights to unionize, and Grinnell College is an undergraduate learning institution. The school's administration did not have a problem with the student dining workers unionizing, but is against the prospect of negotiating with most of the student body, which would negatively affect their educational mission.