March 17, 2023
To Keep Grad Students From Unionizing, Duke University Wants to Change the Rules
By Eleanor Buchanan
After the Duke Graduate Students Union filed for an election, the university announced that it would challenge the NLRB decision from 2016 that granted graduate workers across the country the right to organize.
By: Anita Simha
Earlier this month, after the Duke Graduate Students Union filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board, the university initially told its graduate workers that the administration would “support the right of all eligible voters to freely consider and register their views” because, ultimately, “the decision about unionization is up to Duke students.”
We were hopeful that the administration would keep its word, adopt a neutral position, and allow a vote—as many peer institutions have done. Instead, Duke administrators confirmed that they will, in fact, attempt to roll back the landmark 2016 NLRB decision, which affirmed that graduate students at private institutions are workers with a right to unionize. “Duke’s relationship with our students is centered on education, training, and mentorship, fundamentally different from that of employer to employee,” wrote Jennifer Francis, the interim provost.
Instead of allowing its grad workers to vote, the university is hoping to obstruct workplace democracy across the country. In 2017, Duke challenged the same NLRB decision, but failed before the regional board. Its current challenge will likely meet the same fate. Duke’s only real path to prevent our unionization requires them to delay at every turn in hopes of an anti-labor Republican winning the White House in 2024 and reshaping the NLRB.
