Hundreds of UH graduate assistants sue Board of Regents, state over the right to unionize
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HONOLULU (KITV) — Attorney Lance Collins was a graduate assistant (GA) when he was a student at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in the 1990s. Since then, Collins has been a part of the effort to form a collective bargaining unit for the student workers.
Several bills on the matter have been sent through the state legislature over the past few decades, but none of them passed. The movement stems from a Hawai’i Labor Relations Board ruling in 1972, deeming GAs private secretaries, not public employees entitled to a union.
“However, today, graduate assistants basically perform, research, and teach in a manner that professional faculty members and other employees of the university do, who all are allowed to collectively bargain,” Collins said.
GA Alex Miller chairs the Academic Labor United (ALU), an organization that represents 350 GAs at UH, and one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Saturday against the UH Board of Regents and the Hawai’i Labor Relations Board.
Attorney Lance Collins was a graduate assistant (GA) when he was a student at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in the 1990s. Since then, Collins has been a part of the effort to form a collective bargaining unit for the student workers.
Several bills on the matter have been sent through the state legislature over the past few decades, but none of them passed. The movement stems from a Hawai’i Labor Relations Board ruling in 1972, deeming GAs private secretaries, not public employees entitled to a union.
“However, today, graduate assistants basically perform, research, and teach in a manner that professional faculty members and other employees of the university do, who all are allowed to collectively bargain,” Collins said.
GA Alex Miller chairs the Academic Labor United (ALU), an organization that represents 350 GAs at UH, and one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Saturday against the UH Board of Regents and the Hawai’i Labor Relations Board.
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