The fight to organize graduate students at Harvard has come to a standstill. Although the results of the November election were in favor of unionization, an NLRB hearing is on the books to review objections filed by both parties and to determine whether the challenged ballots should be counted. It is possible that a re-vote will be cast. Duke University would have been in the same bucket as Harvard had organizers not decided to withdraw their petition to organize. Meanwhile, six Yale departments have voted to form unions. Yale took a different approach than Harvard and Duke and opted to organize in micro-units, rather than as one large union. Arguments for both approaches can be read here. At Loyola University, faculty members in the Theology Department must now be excluded from a proposed bargaining unit. This comes from a split NLRB decision naming it inappropriate to include Theology Department members in a unit since Loyola is a religious institution. On the charter school front, the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (Chicago ACTS) Local 4343 is looking to organize what would be “the largest unionized charter school network in the country.” So far, Chicago ACTS has helped organize teachers and staff from 32 Chicago area charter schools. This new attempt involves workers from Noble Network’s 17 charter high schools. If successful, approximately 800 educators and staff with Noble would have union representation.
