MU asks state Supreme Court to hear graduate workers case
Attorneys for the University of Missouri asked the state Supreme Court to hear a case over the employment status of graduate workers on Wednesday.
The Missouri Western District Court of Appeals issued a notice in August denying the university’s request to rehear or transfer the part of the case that argues graduate workers are employees. This, after the appeals court ruled in July that graduate workers are employees under legal definitions and entitled to collective bargaining rights.
The case was originally filed in 2016 in Boone County by the Coalition of Graduate Workers, an organization formed to lobby for graduate student workers and represent them in collective bargaining. The university refused to recognize the union as a bargaining representative after a vote of graduate students held in April 2016, prompting the suit.
In its July ruling, the appeals court sent the question over the legality of that election back to Boone County court for further litigation.
As of 2 p.m. Thursday, the Supreme Court had not decided if it would hear the case.
