[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 61 (Thursday, April 17, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S3162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Brown, 
        Mr. Feingold, and Mr. Schumer):
  S. 2891. A bill to amend the National Labor Relations Act to apply 
the protections of the Act to teaching and research assistants; to the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is important for Congress to do more 
to guarantee graduate students the right to organize and to bargain 
over their wages and working conditions as teaching and research 
assistants, so I am introducing legislation today to do so.
  More than ever in modern education, teaching and research assistants 
are in classrooms every day, educating students in colleges and 
universities across the country. Their numbers are increasing as the 
number of full time faculty dwindles. Often, teaching and research 
assistants are now doing the same job as junior faculty members.
  In fact, the classroom is a workplace for these scholars. It's where 
they earn the money they need to pay to put food on their tables and a 
roof over their heads. They deserve the right to stand together and 
make their voice heard in their workplace. Like other employees, they 
should have the right to join a union and improve their working 
conditions. Obviously, better wages and working conditions for them 
also means better education for their students.
  In 2004, however, a decision by the National Labor Relations Board 
changed the law and denied fundamental workplace rights and protections 
for teaching and research assistants. This ruling stopped an active 
organizing movement in its tracks and deprived thousands of teaching 
and research assistants of their right to organize and bargain over 
their wages and working conditions.
  It is hardly the only bad decision by the National Labor Relations 
Board under the Bush administration, which has been the most anti-
worker, anti-labor, anti-union NLRB in history. The Board has let 
workers down at every turn. It has blocked efforts to gain union 
representation, undermined workers' attempts to improve their pay and 
benefits, and exposed them to penalties for seeking to improve their 
working conditions.
  The National Labor Relations Board is supposed to protect the rights 
of American workers, but it is failing teaching and research 
assistants, just as it has failed so many others. By passing the 
Teaching and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining Rights Act, 
Congress will give these workers back the rights that the National 
Labor Relations Board has taken away. This legislation amends the 
definition of employee under the National Labor Relations Act to 
explicitly include teaching and research assistants at private 
universities and colleges and restores the law to where it was before 
the Bush board's anti-worker decision.
  This bill is a significant step forward in restoring workers' rights, 
and I urge my colleagues to join in supporting this important 
legislation.

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