Case Study 5.2 - "Are Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, and Proctors Employees Under the Nlrb?"

Case study 5.2 - "Are Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, and Proctors Employees under the NLRB?" Given the broad definition of “employee” found in the NLRA, one would have to conclude that the teaching assistants, research assistants, and proctors are all employees of Yellowstone University. At a public institution the NLRA would specifically not apply, but as a private institution Yellowstone is providing compensation to its graduate students for contributions made to the operation of the school at large. The additional tuition remissions given to the majority of graduate students is the only portion of this compensation that could reasonably be considered financial aid, and make it clear that the services provided by the graduate students are economically advantageous to the institution in and of themselves, regardless of the education that the graduate students receives via these services (i.e. teaching and research). There are several reasons that a labor union would wish to organize and represent teaching assistants and research assistants, as well as the proctors and anyone else performing work for Yellowstone University. On an altruistic level, it could be that they simply wished to ensure fair employment practices and better conditions and compensation for the employees. On a more pragmatic level, the bargaining power of the labor union would be far greater of teaching assistants and research assistants were unionized. The recognized employees—specifically instructors and researchers—of Yellowstone University are presumably unionized, and the addition of teaching and research assistants to the union rolls would give labor near complete control over the basic functions (research and instruction) of the university. In addition to providing the union with a much stronger bargaining position in absolute terms, this would give the union greater flexibility in bargaining with more available concessions. Fro that reason, teaching assistants,