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A regional National Labor Relations Board office said Friday that student housing advisers at Reed College may hold an election to form a union. Reed argued against the students’ right to do so, saying that the NLRB had erred in a major 2016 decision classifying student workers on private campuses as employees entitled to collective bargaining. Reed also argued that the proposed unit should include other students serving in peer-support roles, not just housing advisers.
Ronald K. Hooks, regional director of the NLRB’s Seattle office, found that students in the proposed Reed unit are union-eligible and that their duties are distinct from those of other peer-support workers on campus. The 2016 decision from the NLRB, concerning graduate student workers at Columbia University, was surprisingly broad in its scope, saying that not only teaching assistants but also research assistants and even undergraduate workers on private campuses were entitled to collective bargaining.
Another NLRB regional director said last year that resident advisers at George Washington University could hold an election to form a union affiliated with Service Employees International Union. Organizers called off that vote, however.
Also last week, the NLRB ordered Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit to engage in collective bargaining with its adjunct faculty union, which is affiliated with United Steelworkers. Part-time instructors at Duquesne’s McAnulty College voted to unionize in 2012, but the university has said its Roman Catholic affiliation puts it outside NLRB jurisdiction. The board has said otherwise, with the exception of the theology faculty.
Reed had no immediate comment on the housing adviser matter. Duquesne said it plans to appeal the NLRB's decision in federal court.
