Catherwood LibraryILR School

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board ruled last Friday that Penn State graduate students working as teaching and research assistants have union rights under the Pennsylvania Employee Relations Act. The final decision came well after a week-long hearing in September where the University argued that graduate students are not employees. Unlike the other grad student organization drives at private universities across the country that happened in response to the September 2016 NLRB ruling that expanded the definition of a “worker”, Penn State graduate assistants are not covered under that ruling due to the fact that it is a public university. The Coalition of Graduate Employees is celebrating the decision by the Pennsylvania Labor Board to include Penn State grad students as protected workers under the Pennsylvania Employee Relations Act, CGE says they are confident they will win the representation election.