Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board released a July 13 decision which ruled against giving graduate students the right to unionize at Brown University. The decision -- which overturns a 2001 ruling on a similar case at New York University -- spurred the NLRB to refer Penn's case to Philadelphia's regional director for ruling.
The Brown decision comes down decisively against graduate students' ability to unionize, and relies on many of the same arguments that Penn had used its ongoing battle with GET-UP. Penn, and many of its peers -- including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Yale University -- had filed amicus curiae briefs in the Brown case.
"Because they are first and foremost students, and their status as a graduate student assistant is contingent on their continued status as students, we find that they are primarily students," the decision reads. "The evidence demonstrates that the relationship between Brown's graduate student assistants and Brown is primarily educational."
GET-UP Co-Chairwoman Sayumi Takahashi said that the group will continue to operate as usual.
"We're just continuing to go ahead, organizing our union, informing graduate students about the issues," Takahashi said. "We do find the NLRB decision on Brown to be disappointing -- but it's not a death blow," she added.
"It's certainly galvanized us and sort of brought home the partisan structure of the NLRB," Takahashi said, citing the Republican majority in the board.
Deputy Provost Peter Conn -- who will take over as interim provost in about a week -- was pleased by the decision, though he emphasized that a ruling on Penn has yet to be handed down.
"What the Brown decision does is to ratify and articulate the fundamental educational argument that this University has been making in the whole course of the discussion," Conn said. "We welcome the Brown decision."
University spokesperson Lori Doyle said that the Brown decision speaks strongly in favor of Penn's ongoing battle against GET-UP.
"Based on this decision, we do not see any grounds for appeal by GET-UP," Doyle said. "We would expect to get a ruling from the NLRB soon that is consistent with the Brown ruling holding that graduate students are students and not employees."
