From the Brown Daily Herald: In a historic move, graduate fellows at Brown are seeking recognition as part of the Graduate Labor Organization, the union representing graduate student employees... Leaders from RIFT-AFT Local 6516, GLO’s parent group, sent a message to University officials announcing the graduate fellows’ intent to unionize... The move appears to be the first of its kind at a private U.S. institution of higher education, something union organizers argue is made possible by a novel Rhode Island law passed in August that explicitly codifies the right of graduate student employees — including fellows not working as teaching or research assistants — to unionize.
Graduate fellows are students who receive stipend funding unrelated to whether or not they officially work as research or teaching assistants. The University’s current contract with GLO includes only graduate student employees recognized by the National Labor Relations Board, many of whom are teaching or research assistants. Fellows are not currently recognized at the federal level, according to Patrick Crowley, the president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO branch, which advocated for the bill’s passage. “This is exactly why we did it: to make sure that workers who don’t have the right to organize federally can organize in the state,” Crowley said...
Full story at https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2026/03/graduate-fellows-seek-to-unionize-in-unprecedented-move.
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