The spotlight has been on graduate student student unions for almost a year, in part because of high-profile strikes at the University of California system and Rutgers and Temple universities.
Of course, graduate student unions’ efforts at public colleges have been intensifying for decades. But at private colleges, graduate unions were barred from striking until the 2016 NLRB ruling.
Duke graduate workers tried to unionize after the NLRB decision, but a vote failed in 2017. At the time, Duke officials had refused to acknowledge a potential union to a regional labor board.
