This article is a summary discussion of the main issues faced by faculty at private, often church-sponsored, universities who sought to be represented by a union in collective bargaining with their employers. The discussion begins by tracing the origins of the rule that faculty at private universities are managers and not employees under the aegis…

The recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the "Columbia University"case granting students who serve as teaching or research assistants at private universities the right to unionize dealt a major blow to private higher education as we know it. In a long-anticipated decision, the NLRB ruled that any student who…

Efforts to unionize students at private universities are gaining momentum. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has agreed to reconsider whether graduate students at private nonprofit colleges and universities should be treated as employees under the National Labor Relations Act. The case, "New School", Case No. 02- RC-143009,…

Rightly or wrongly, a language of "firsts" has long permeated graduate student labor at New York University (NYU). In 2002, NYU's graduate student employees were the first in the nation to secure a union contract at a private university. In 2005, they were also the first to lose their contract, precipitating a bitter six-month-long…

Problems presented by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asserting jurisdiction over colleges and universities are analyzed and recommendations made for legislative response to help resolve remaining issues. Development of common labor-management regulations for both public and private higher education is suggested since similarities in…

The specific problems of private institutions concerned with faculty collective bargaining are discussed in relation to the National Labor Relations Act. Emphasis is placed on the rationale of and the implications for collective bargaining. The rationale of collective bargaining is viewed in light of the distribution of privileges, private…

The impact of the Supreme Court Decision, "National Labor Relations Board versus Yeshiva University," on collective bargaining at colleges and universities is considered. The basic thrust of the majority decision is that faculty are not under the umbrella of the National Labor Relations Act and that administration may refuse to negotiate…

The decision will have little impact on public universities in those states that have public employee bargaining statutes expressly including university faculty members. However, it may provide ammunition for anticollective bargaining forces in states where the legislatures are considering whether to extend collective bargaining to university…

Hearings on proposed legislation to amend the National Labor Relations Act are presented. H.R. 3291 would protect the right of faculty at private educational institutions to engage in collective bargaining, while H.R. 5107 is intended to make meaningful the right of performing artists to engage in collective bargaining. H.R. 3291 stipulates that…

Campus collective bargaining proceedings associated with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) versus Yeshiva University case are analyzed. The number of institutions exercising Yeshiva-like claims has risen to 49, and the vast majority of the claimants are institutions that have challenged the right of the faculty to organize and bargain…

The Supreme Court ruling on the Yeshiva case, which ruled that Yeshiva faculty are managerial employees and therefore not protected in their organizing efforts by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), is discussed. Consequences of the ruling are to discourage faculty from establishing unions and to foster numerous court challenges. (MLW)