Brown: School will comply with grad student union ruling
Providence — Brown University says it will comply with a federal decision to allow graduate students to unionize.
School officials tell The Providence Journal the Providence university will support graduate students as they consider whether to form a union and bargain collectively.
The National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday ruled in favor of Columbia University students in New York who wanted to join the United Auto Workers union. The decision resulted in the extension of federal labor laws to cover grad students who work as teaching and research assistants.
That decision also reversed an earlier one against Brown University grad students in 2004 that said students shouldn't be treated like employees. The board says that decision "deprived" workers of federal protections without a "convincing justification."
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