[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 61 (Thursday, April 17, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E652]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    INTRODUCTION OF THE TEACHING AND RESEARCH ASSISTANT COLLECTIVE 
                         BARGAINING RIGHTS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 17, 2008

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to 
introduce the Teaching and Research Assistant Collective Bargaining 
Rights Act. This legislation will restore the right of graduate 
assistants to organize and bargain for better wages and working 
conditions under the National Labor Relations Act, NLRA.
  Graduate assistants across this country have seen their workloads 
dramatically increase in recent years. As many colleges and 
universities try to cut costs they have relied on graduate students to 
take on a larger role and more responsibility: They teach classes, 
develop course curriculum, grade student papers, and provide 
counseling. One reason for this trend is simple--graduate student 
teachers are paid a fraction of what faculty earn. Confronted with this 
economic reality, graduate assistants, many of whom have families to 
support, have sought to exercise their right to organize and bargain 
collectively for a better deal.
  Right on cue, as it has done with millions of other workers, the Bush 
NLRB quickly stripped away the right of graduate teaching students to 
join a union and have a voice at the bargaining table. The National 
Labor Relations Board's, NLRB, 2004 decision in Brown University 
overturned prior precedent and found that graduate assistants are not 
employees under the NLRA and therefore not afforded the rights and 
protections of the Act. This decision has stripped away the right of 
over 51,000 teaching assistants, research assistants and proctors to 
bargain for better wages and working conditions at 1.561 private 
universities.
  Thousands of graduate assistants continue to light for the right to 
join a union. At public universities in 14 States, graduate assistants 
are already afforded the right to join unions. According to the 
Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions, there are approximately 23 
unions on more than 60 campuses in the United States, including the 
University of Michigan, the University of Massachusetts, and the 
University of California.
  The Teaching and Research Assistant Collective Bargaining Rights Act 
is simple. It will amend Section 2(3) of the NLRA to clarify that the 
term ``employee'' includes any graduate student who is performing work 
for compensation at the direction of the institution. As employees, 
these workers would have the right to organize and bargain collectively 
under the NLRA. This bill restores prior precedent. As the NLRA covers 
only private sector workers, State schools are not affected by the 
Brown University decision or this legislation.
  The Teaching and Research Assistant Collective Bargaining Rights is 
about fundamental fairness and justice. It will restore the right to 
thousands of hardworking graduate employees to bargain for better wages 
and working conditions. I urge all of my colleagues to support this 
country's graduate teaching assistants and support this legislation.

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