STATEMENT BY RICHARD C. LEVIN, PRESIDENT, YALE UNIVERSITY
IN RESPONSE TO THE NLRB DECISIONS IN THE CASE OF YALE UNIVERSITY AND THE GRADUATE EMPLOYEES AND STUDENTS ORGANIZATION AND THE CASE OF THE BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER CORPORATION
November 29, 1999
New Haven, Conn. — Yale is pleased that the National Labor Relations Board has strongly upheld its position that a 1995 grade strike by graduate students was not protected under federal labor law, and that the participating students “misappropriated University property” by withholding undergraduate papers and test materials.
The board upheld an earlier decision by an administrative law judge to dismiss charges that the Graduate Employees and Students Organization had brought against the University based on the University’s actions in response to the grade strike.
At the same time, we are concerned that the board sent the case back to the administrative law judge to consider whether Yale faculty made certain unlawful “threats” against graduate students during the strike. We do not believe this to be the case.
In this and the Boston Medical case, the board left open the question of whether graduate students are now legally entitled to unionize, and it directed the judge to address this issue as well.
We continue to believe that unionization is not in the best interests of graduate students at Yale, and we trust that our community will come to the same conclusion.
