Report finds labor unions in higher education surging, bucking national trends

A record high 38% of graduate student workers belong to a union, according to a report that finds collective bargaining in higher education bucking national labor trends.

Representation among masters and doctoral students serving as teaching assistants, tutors and in other campus roles surged by 133% from 2012 to January 2024, reaching 150,104 workers in 81 bargaining units.

That’s nearly doubled from 83,050 unionized graduate students in 2020, according to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College, which published the report this month. It noted that 60% of the growth occurred on private campuses, where the federal government regulates bargaining.

Study co-author William Herbert, the center’s director, credited the trend to a “generational shift” among younger students embracing the pitch that unions can boost their wages and benefits to offset post-pandemic inflation in living costs.

“The increase in union representation requires administrators to adjust to workplace democracy, particularly in how decisions are made concerning working conditions,” Mr. Herbert said in an email. “Instead of changes being made unilaterally by a college, those issues must be discussed and hopefully resolved at the bargaining table.”

The report also found that unionization surged over the past 12 years for nontenured faculty, postdoctoral students and undergraduate student workers.

The share of unionized faculty grew by 7.5% to 27% this year, or 402,217 members in roughly 600 institutions across 29 states and the District of Columbia. That included a 56% increase at private colleges and 4% growth at public campuses, which are subject to a patchwork of state regulations.

California, New York and New Jersey, which have some of the most union-friendly laws in the nation, reported the highest numbers of unionized professors.

The remaining 1,108,998 professors, roughly 73% of all faculty, were nonunionized.

The findings come as union membership fell sharply from 20.1% of all U.S. workers in 1983 to 10% in 2023, the most recent year of federal data.

Several experts reached for comment noted that unions have grown in popularity among younger workers in recent years, thanks partly to pro-labor policies from the Biden-Harris administration.

They pointed to union recruiting campaigns on college campuses and a surge among Starbucks and Amazon workers winning the right to organize over the past four years.

Last month, a Gallup poll reported that labor unions registered a 70% approval rating nationwide, a 57-year high. Another 23% of adults said they disapproved of unions, the lowest since 1967.

“Some of this support for unions is related to the great disparities of wealth in our society and the tremendous difference in the financial conditions of a small group of ultra-wealthy owners and the millions of people who perform the labor that enables that wealth,” said Tim Cain, a University of Georgia professor of higher education.

According to higher education insiders, the Obama and Biden administrations have supported the trend by appointing members of the National Labor Relations Board who are friendly to students unionizing at private campuses.

The NLRB, which sets federal labor regulations for private employers, ruled in 2016 that graduate students at Columbia University were employees of the Ivy League school with a right to organize.

That same year, the NLRB ruled that undergraduate dining workers at private Grinnell College were employees with bargaining rights.

Between 2017 and 2021, the Trump administration appointed board members who paused the recognition of bargaining units, shifting the NLRB to an anti-union stance.

The Biden-Harris administration has since moved the needle back in a pro-union direction, making membership compulsory for many graduate student workers.

‘Labor unions are businesses’

The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, a network of private schools, said it has generally opposed the push to unionize student workers.

“For both graduate and undergraduate students, NAICU has generally taken the position that these students’ relationship to their institutions is primarily educational, not economic, in nature,” said NAICU spokesperson Pete Boyle. “They should therefore be treated as students, not workers, for purposes of the NLRB.”

Last month, attorneys from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation won a ruling from the NLRB that exempted six Jewish graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from being forced to pay union dues. The students objected to the union’s political statements and activity criticizing Israel.

“The National Labor Relations Board under both the Biden and Obama administrations overturned decades of legal precedent to grant union bosses the power to force monopoly bargaining power on graduate students across the country, even those who want nothing to do with unionization,” said Patrick Semmens, vice president of the foundation. “This has been problematic for many reasons, including several specific to graduate students.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has courted labor endorsements as she touts President Biden’s claim of being “the most pro-union administration in American history.”

“When unions are strong, America is strong,” Ms. Harris said during a Labor Day campaign stop in Detroit. She also pledged to end union busting.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, appeared to express his support for firing striking workers in an interview with X owner Elon Musk last month.

“They go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone,’” Mr. Trump said.

Meanwhile, the cash to pay graduate students has become increasingly scarce as enrollment declines and state funding cuts have forced many small colleges to close, trim their budgets or merge with other institutions.

Gary Stocker, who founded College Viability to evaluate campuses’ financial stability, estimates that 40 out of 200 struggling private colleges will shutter in the current academic year even after tightening their belts. He expects the closings to displace 40,000 to 50,000 students.

“There is no real end in sight to the consolidation of both public and private colleges,” said Mr. Stocker, a former chief of staff at private Westminster College in Missouri. “Labor unions are businesses, and they clearly see an opportunity to grow their business with college faculty, staff, and conceivably athletes in the coming years.”

Most of the recent surge in graduate student unionization has occurred at elite research universities with large endowments, reflecting a growing competition for scarce resources.

The University of Georgia’s Mr. Cain noted that only 25% of college faculty now work in tenure-track positions with guaranteed careers, compared to roughly 75% of all professors 50 years ago.

“A few decades ago, earning a Ph.D. provided the realistic chance for a meaningful career as a tenure-line faculty member,” he added. “Today, most doctoral recipients will never be tenure-line faculty members, which emphasizes that their work in classrooms and labs is just that: work.”

According to the experts, graduate student unions have grown faster at private campuses because many Southern and Midwestern states don’t allow unions at public colleges. They predicted membership will continue increasing at private campuses as long as Democrat-led federal protections remain intact.

Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars, said the trend reflects the “deep dissatisfaction” of many scholars who have discovered they cannot make a living from an industry in decline.

He said it’s unlikely that union membership will substantially change that outlook as the cash cow of higher education dries up.

“The ship is sinking,” said Mr. Wood, a former associate provost at private Boston University. “More and more of the crew will address the situation by demanding better rations.”