When the National Labor Relations Board upended a 12-year precedent last year with a decision that said graduate students at private universities had the right to organize, it spurred movements on campuses around the country and a wave of pushback from school administrations.
This week saw the latest win for labor organizers with a ruling that cleared the University of Chicago to proceed with a union vote for 2,500 teaching and research assistants. But under the Trump administration and with a new makeup of the NLRB, these movements could cool. Cases around issues such as graduate student unionization are likely to be heard by a Republican-majority board that tends to be less sympathetic with union organizers in general, including those at universities.
