Today, there are some 31 grad student unions nationwide, mostly in public institutions, but increasingly in private ones as well. Common student complaints include low wages, overtime without pay, lack of maternity leave, inadequate health-care insurance and over-the-top student fees.
Here's a timeline of such unionization.
1969
The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Teaching Assistants Association is recognized as the first grad-student-related independent employee bargaining unit, gaining an official union contract in 1970.
1970s-1980s
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) states that graduate assistants are not employees because their relationships to their universities are primarily for learning. Because of these rulings, student unionizing enters a period of quiescence.
1990s
Union activity re-emerges among grad students at public universities, thanks to their ability to convince state legislators to give them collective bargaining rights.
2000
Students at New York University take their case for collective bargaining rights before the NLRB. The board rules in their favor and says graduate students can hold such negotiations at private universities as well as public ones. NYU becomes the first private university to allow a union.
2004
Brown University grad students unionize. University administration protests to the NLRB, which sides with the administration. As a result, the labor board revokes the rights of grad students at private universities to bargain collectively.
August 2005
The NYU contract expires, and the university's administration ceases to recognize the group because of the 2004 ruling.
November 2005-May 2006
NYU grad students hold a highly publicized strike, eventually losing because they lack the power of law.
2006-2014
Unionizing accelerates at public universities, and the movement at NYU returns.
2013
Thanks to students' protests, the NYU administration agrees to recognize them and negotiates a new contract, despite the law.
2014
University of Connecticut grad students organize and win a number of victories, including a better pay contract and maternity leave.
Labor Day 2015
Graduate employees at the University of Missouri announce a union drive in response to what they termed "years of crises in graduate employee working conditions," including a move by their administration to rescind their health insurance overnight.
In another collective student victory at the University of Missouri that received some input and support from the grad student union, the university's president and chancellor — Tim Wolfe and R. Bowen Loftin, respectively — resign on Nov. 9 in the wake of student protests over the school's poor racial climate.
Oct. 21, 2015
Grad students at Columbia University and The New School appeal to the NLRB, and the board grants review. Observers anticipate that the board will overturn the 2004 Brown University decision and restore collective bargaining rights to grad students at private universities.