Education Briefs
September 26U.S. Senate holds hearing on grad student unions Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), chair of the Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on labor and education, held a hearing Thursday to discuss the rights of teaching assistants (TAs) to unionize. Committee members discussed a recent decision made by the National Labor Relations Board, which held that that TAs at Brown University could not unionize. The decision overturned an earlier result that had led to the establishment of the first TA union at New York University. After allegations surfaced that the members of the Board had voted along partisan lines and not according to the letter of the law, the issue came before the Senate subcommittee. Specter said that national legislation on TA unionization is unlikely, however. After the Brown decision, similar cases, including one involving Tufts, were sent back to regional boards to rule on the use of the new standards.
