Dear University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. and Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley,
As faculty, we are writing to express our dismay at the University’s efforts to challenge the upcoming union certification election for graduate student employees. Scheduled for Sept. 12 and 13, the election is the culmination of months of organizing by graduate students who have formed a local chapter of the Graduate Student Employees Union under the United Auto Workers. Last summer, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) affirmed that graduate teaching and research assistants were employees under federal law and have the right to vote on union representation. While graduate students at public universities have had this right under some state laws for decades, the NLRB’s decision effectively extends this right to students at private universities.
Boston College is seeking to halt the upcoming election on the grounds that graduate assistants are students not employees and that the mentoring relationship between faculty and students would be “irreparably altered” by unionization. We disagree with this view. As faculty, we understand that graduate assistants are both students and workers, as the NLRB has affirmed. As such, we believe in their rights under law to decide whether or not to join a union.
As for unionization’s impact on the mentoring relationship, there is no real foundation for the university’s claim. In a 2000 study surveying three hundred faculty members, a Tufts University researcher concluded “the collective bargaining agreement does not play a role in defining faculty’s educational relationships with graduate students, as theorized by university administrators.” Another study, conducted at Cornell University in 2013, compared the impact of unionization on graduate student employees and their educational outcomes. They too found that “Unionization does not have the presumed negative effect on student outcomes, and in some cases has a positive effect.” In short, the assertion that unionization will adversely affect BC’s educational mission is not supported by the facts.
BC is also challenging the upcoming election on religious grounds, arguing that as a Jesuit Catholic institution, BC should be exempt from the National Labor Relations Act and NLRB oversight. The legal grounds for such an argument are questionable, and in any case, the Catholic Church has long been an outspoken supporter of labor’s right to organize.
We appreciate the hard work that our graduate students put into teaching and research and recognize the immense value of their labor to undergraduate education and scholarly research at BC. In the spirit of the recent Labor Day holiday, we also affirm the fundamental legal rights of all workers in this country, including the right to organize collectively. Thus, we call upon BC to respect the NLRB’s recent ruling in favor of BC graduate workers’ right to form a union. We further urge the administration to adopt a principled position of neutrality toward the electoral process and to respect the BC graduate workers’ right to decide for themselves whether or not unionization is appropriate and beneficial.
Treseanne Ainsworth, English
Sarah Babb, Sociology
Betty Blythe, Social Work
Benjamin Braude, History
Karen Breda, Law Library
Mark Brodin, Law School
Michael J Clarke, Chemistry (emeritus)
Kyrah Malika Daniels, AADS/Art, Art History & Film
Charles Derber, Sociology
Lauren Diamond-Brown, Sociology
Nicole Eaton, History
Robin Fleming, History
Rhonda D Frederick, English & AADS
William Gamson, Sociology
Yonder Moynihan Gillihan, Theology
Pamela Grace, Nursing
Paul Gray, Sociology
Kent Greenfield, Law School
Laura Hake, Biology
Lori Harrison-Kahan, English
Aeron Hunt, English
Mary Jo Iozzio, STM
Regine Michelle Jean-Charles, RLL & AADS
Andrea Javel, RLL
Marilynn Johnson, History
Andrew Jorgenson, Sociology
Tom Kaplan-Maxfield, English
Eileen Donovan Kranz, English
Priya Lal, History
Deborah Levenson, Capstone
Adam Lewis, English
Ramsay Liem, Psychology (emeritus)
Robin Lydenberg, English
Brinton Lykes, LSOE
Ray Madoff, Law School
Michael Malec, Sociology
Paula Mathieu, English
John McDargh, Theology
C Shawn McGuffey, Sociology & AADS
Patrick McQuillan, LSOE
Sarah Melton, BC Libraries
Karen Miller, History
Rebekah Mitsein, English
Cathy Mooney, STM
Kevin Newmark, RLL
Arissa Oh, History
Kevin Ohi, English
Kevin O’Neill, History
Prasannan Parthasarathi, History
Caleb Pennington, History
Stephen Pfohl, Sociology
Zygmunt JB Plater, Law School
Patrick Proctor, LSOE
Jennie Purnell, Political Science
Virginia Reinburg, History
Elizabeth Rhodes, RLL
Susan Roberts, English
Chelcie Juliet Rowell, BC Libraries
Sarah Gwyneth Ross, History
Dana Sajdi, History
Natalia Sarkisian, Sociology
Kalpana Seshadri, English
Juliet Schor, Sociology
Sylvia Sellers-Garcia, History
Jessica Shaw, Social Work
Dennis Shirley, LSOE
Min Hyoung Song, English
Eve Spangler, Sociology
Robert Stanton, English
Chris Staysniak, History
Martin Summers, History & AADS
Lad Tobin, English
Tony Tran, Communications
Anjali Vats, Communications and AADS
Peter Weiler, History (emeritus)
Eric Weiskott, English
John Williamson, Sociology
David Wirth, Law School
Liesl Yamaguchi, RLL
Ling Zhang, History
