Graduate Student Unionization

Graduate Student Unionization

Graduate student employee unionization, or Academic student employee unionization, refers to labor unions that represent students who are employed by their college or university to teach classes, conduct research and perform clerical duties. As of 2007 there are 28 graduate student employee local unions in the United States. and 21 local unions in Canada. Labor laws in the United States and Canada permit collective bargaining for only limited classes of student-employees. Many of these unions refer to their workers as Academic Student Employees (ASEs) to reflect the fact that their membership may also include undergraduate students working in represented job classifications. Many university administrators have vigorously opposed the unionization of graduate student employees on their campuses through legal challenges. Opposition by elite universities in the U.S. led to the loss of collective bargaining rights for graduate student employees in the private sector.