Grad Student Union Effort Joins With United Auto Workers

The Harvard Crimson reports:

Members of a movement to unionize students at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences have entered into an organized partnership with the United Auto Workers Union, according to representatives from both groups.

The UAW currently represents graduate student unions and movements at Columbia and New York University, and UAW Local 1596—the chapter with which the Harvard Graduate Student Union is working—has previously helped graduate student employees to unionize at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Lowell.

Though members of the movement declined to comment on when their partnership with the UAW officially began, the UAW was officially supporting the Harvard graduate student group by last Thursday. Members of Local 1596 were on campus that day helping the Harvard students recruit new members, according to Chris Nook, president of UAW Local 2324.

The union of Harvard graduate students, which first made public its intentions to unionize in April, must expand its membership to include a simple majority of GSAS students as part of the legal requirements to form a union. Even if they reach that threshold, however, the University is not legally bound to recognize a resultant union, according to a 2004 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board.

Is Harvard ready for the new UAW or the old UAW.