Labor Board Rules Against TA Unions

Decision is major blow to organizing efforts at private colleges

By SCOTT SMALLWOOD

Graduate students at private universities do not have the right to form labor unions, the National Labor Relations Board ruled last week, striking down its own landmark 2000 ruling that had led to a wave of organizing.

The long-awaited decision was split along party lines, with members of the board ruling, 3 to 2, that teaching assistants at Brown University are primarily students and are not covered by federal labor law. The United Automobile Workers had organized graduate students