Russell Burgett, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University, has appealed to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Crystal Carey, urging the agency to reconsider policies that require graduate students to fund and associate with unions.
Burgett filed his appeal on February 10 with assistance from attorneys at the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation. He is asking the NLRB to revisit its 2016 Columbia University decision, which classified graduate students as employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This classification allows unions to represent graduate students at private universities.
“A graduate student’s primary relationship with his or her school is as a customer of that school’s educational instruction and services, not as a statutory employee,” Burgett stated in his appeal. “[U]niversities forcing graduate students to pay union dues to act as teaching and research assistants interferes with their ability to complete their course of studies and earn their degrees. Here, the [union contract] effectively makes financially supporting [the union] a condition of receiving a Cornell graduate degree.”
Burgett is not a member of the Cornell Graduate Student Union (CGSU-UE), which is affiliated with United Electrical. He opposes what he describes as CGSU’s ideology and activities on campus. In New York, where Cornell is located, state law does not provide right-to-work protections; this means unions can require non-members who are considered employees to pay fees as a condition for completing their programs.
Burgett also claims that CGSU officials denied his request to opt out of paying dues used for political purposes—a right established by the Supreme Court in CWA v. Beck. According to Burgett, union officials told him objections could only be made during a limited “window period” each year.
In his appeal, Burgett asks the NLRB General Counsel to take action against both CGSU officials and Cornell management. He argues that contracts requiring financial support for unions prevent universities from doing business with students who choose not to join or fund unions—an arrangement he believes violates federal labor law.
The appeal further contends that limiting when students can exercise their Beck rights should also be grounds for prosecution.
“It is unconscionable that current NLRB case law allows union officials, like those from CGSU-UE, to upend the academic careers of students who refuse to associate with them,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Union bosses’ one-size-fits-all bargaining schemes have no place in the world of academia, where freedom of thought and association should be paramount.”
“We’re proud to stand behind Mr. Burgett, and urge the Board to affirm the commonsense idea that graduate students are students and were never intended to be subjected to the NLRB’s forced unionism regime,” Mix added.
The National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation provides free legal aid and public education on issues related to compulsory unionism. The organization engages in litigation across the country aimed at protecting workers’ rights against mandatory union fees and advancing worker autonomy through court cases and educational efforts (official website).
