Teaching, Yale alleges, is a fundamental part of graduate students' training.
And unions, they say, are only for groups of fully-employed workers.
But that's exactly what some Yale grad students say they are.
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"I teach French five days a week and do all the grading," Ruquist says. "I consider it full employment."
At Harvard, where TFing levels can be just as arduous, the perspective is different.
For former GSAS chair Richmond, unionizing is a "last resort."
"We in the GSC hope that, if any serious employment issues did arise, the graduate students and the administration would be able to work through them without unionizing," Richmond says.