US student unions under threat under second Trump administration | Trump administration

Student workers are bracing for the new Trump administration to restrict or eliminate their labor rights, after a wave of unionization on college campuses.

Nearly 45,000 student employees formed unions between 2022 and 2024 across 44 bargaining units. As of early this year, about 38% of all graduate students in the United States were unionized.

But organizers fear that trend will fade as Trump prepares to return to power. During his first presidency, officials attempted to block 1.5 million students employed at private colleges and universities from exercising their collective bargaining rights under the National Labor Relations Act, arguing that these workers were not employees.

While the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the nation's largest labor watchdog, withdrew the proposal months after Joe Biden took office in March 2021, Trump's re-election paves the way for a another battle.

William A. Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professional Professions, predicted sweeping changes under Trump once his administration overhauls the labor watchdog.

Once President Trump appoints a new majority of NLRB board members, future decisions made by that majority risk restricting or eliminating existing labor rights on private sector campuses, Herbert said .

Trump could try again to overturn a 2016 ruling that graduate and undergraduate student employees were covered by the National Labor Relations Act, Herbert suggested, and the NLRB's new legal counsel could modify or scrap the board's current approach to college athletes.

At some colleges, student workers are trying to preempt such action.

There's this feeling of knowing what might or might not happen in the new year, said Dia Brown, an engineering graduate student at Penn State. It just makes it seem more important to keep moving forward.

Earlier this month, a union election petition was filed with the Pennsylvania Labor Council by the Penn State-UAW Graduate Employees Coalition to represent approximately 5,000 graduate students.

Trump's victory makes it even more important to make sure we get this. [union] elections, so we can negotiate, get a contract and get more security for all of our graduate students, said Brown, who cited protecting international students as a top priority in the face of Trump's plan to enact mass expulsions. Some schools in the United States have advised international students to arrive on campus before Trump takes office.

My spending is so unforgiving with the funding I receive through my allowance each month, Brown added. I want me and other graduate students like me, who are struggling financially with current stipends, to feel confident in meeting their needs and meeting their living expenses as well.

They really need to make it a better, safer place to work and, ultimately, a better institution, added Owen Harrington, a graduate student in geography at Penn State. So it was time.

The date for the union election has not yet been set by the Pennsylvania Labor Council.

A Penn State spokesperson said in an email: When we receive the petition, we will review it carefully, considering all points of view. We remain committed to maintaining an open dialogue as we move forward through this process.

Elsewhere, however, graduate students trying to unionize are already facing resistance as universities await Trump's second presidency.

At Vanderbilt, a private university in Nashville, Tennessee, graduate students filed a petition for a union election to join the United Auto Workers in October, with the university opposing the effort, saying 'they were students rather than workers.

The university also filed a lawsuit against the NLRB, which requested student information to determine the scope of the union election and potential bargaining unit. After a judge ruled in favor of the university, the UAW withdrew the election petition earlier this month.

Such withdrawals have been rare in recent years: Graduate students won more than 90% of union elections from 2022 to 2024, often in landslide votes at some of America's top universities.

The union's decision to withdraw its petition and demand paves the way for us to move forward together, Vanderbilt officials said in a statement.

But Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United has made clear it will not back down. This is not a defeat, he said in a statement, saying the university broke the law and got lucky with national political events. They didn't beat us!

As thousands of student workers attempt to unionize, national political events will likely have an outsized impact on their efforts in the years to come.

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