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New bill would grant TAs right to form labor unions
Issue date: 4/24/08
Democrats in Congress introduced a bill that would grant graduate student teaching assistants at private institutions the right to form labor unions.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D- Mass., and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., introuced the legislation in both chambers of Congress in order to clarify National Labor Relations Board guidelines.
A 2004 ruling by the Board said that assistants at Brown University were students, not employees, and were thus not allowed protection under federal labor law.
But the same board had ruled four years earlier that New York University teaching assistants could unionize.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D- Mass., and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., introuced the legislation in both chambers of Congress in order to clarify National Labor Relations Board guidelines.
A 2004 ruling by the Board said that assistants at Brown University were students, not employees, and were thus not allowed protection under federal labor law.
But the same board had ruled four years earlier that New York University teaching assistants could unionize.
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