Today the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will conclude its first week of hearings to decide if Yale University engaged in unfair labor practices against graduate students last fall.

At the end of the 1995 fall semester, 250 graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) instituted a "grade strike," in which grades for fall semester courses were withheld. The strike was designed to force Yale to recognize a legitimate union for TAs, according to the Graduate Employees Students Organization at Yale (GESO).

But instead, the university threatened the TAs on strike with a ban on future teaching, academic disciplinary hearings, negative letters of recommendation and possible expulsion. GESO responded by filing an unfair-labor practice suit with the NLRB against Yale University.

The Hearing

After the charge was filed by the graduate students, the issue of unfair labor practices was investigated by the Hartford region of the NLRB.

"It was viewed that sufficient evidence had been presented to show that these individuals were employees and that the university had engaged in unlawful conduct," says John S. Cotter, acting assistant to the regional director of the Hartford, Conn., office of the NLRB.

Cotter says that because of the highly complex and involved nature of the issue, the hearings are likely to continue on an irregular basis for a few weeks.

A decision by the administrative law judge at the hearing will be subject to appeal to the five-member NLRB in Washington, D.C., Cotter says. An appeal of the administrative law judge's decision is likely regardless of the outcome, Cotter adds.

The board's decision is also subject to appeal to federal court.

The Issue

During the hearing, the university will argue that NLRB precedent should be upheld concerning the classification of graduate students as employees, according to Thomas P. Conroy, acting director of public affairs at Yale.

The university will argue that the teaching done by graduate students is part of their educational process and therefore should not be considered employment as defined by the National Labor Relations act, Conroy says. Teaching is, in fact, required by Yale as a part of its graduate studies program.

"Teaching by graduate students working towards their Ph.D. degree at Yale is an integral part of their academic program that prepares them to become future teachers and scholars in their chosen disciplines," says Thomas Appelquist, dean of the Graduate School at Yale, in a news release. "The graduate students weren't hired by Yale, they enrolled here," Conroy says.

Yale officials claim that an employee status would greatly harm the relationship between graduate students and faculty.

"The productive and collegial relationship would suffer if it turned into an employee-employer relationship," Conroy says.