CAMBRIDGE, Mass. ― Graduate students at Harvard University are organizing an election to decide whether to unionize.
A group of graduate students reached an agreement with Harvard’s administration on Tuesday to hold an election on Nov. 16 and 17. The vote will allow Harvard’s 3,500 teaching and research assistants to decide whether they will be represented by an affiliate of the United Auto Workers union for collective bargaining.
A federal board ruled in August that student workers are entitled to collective bargaining under federal law. It overturned a previous decision ruling that they weren’t.
Harvard and other Ivy League schools had lobbied against the right to unionize, saying graduate workers are primarily students, not employees.
Students at Harvard have been pushing for unionization since last year. University officials did not immediately comment.
