NEW YORK — Columbia University has formally objected to a recent vote by the Ivy League institution’s graduate teaching and research assistants to join the United Auto Workers union.
The university filed a challenge with the National Labor Relations Board this past Friday regarding a Dec. 9 vote that authorized union representation for Columbia’s graduate students.
The NLRB made the vote possible with its August ruling that private universities must treat graduate assistants and researchers as employees. Graduate student unions are common at public colleges across the country.
Columbia claims that voter coercion from union agents and supporters skewed the vote, which the college says must be invalidated by the NLRB.
Union officials say Columbia filed the objection as a delay tactic in yet another effort by the university to ignore the democratic process.
