Policy Concentrates EDUCATION
Graduate students at private schools may unionize Chemistry teaching and research assistants among those looking to negotiate terms of employment ers of Columbia University petitioned to be recognized as a collective bargaining unit, with the support of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. NLRB’s 2004 decision “deprived an entire category of workers of the protections of the Act, without a convincing justification,” the board says in its most recent decision. “Coverage is permitted by virtue of an employment relationship; it is not foreclosed by the existence of some other, additional relationship.” Columbia disagrees with this determination. “The academic relationship students have with faculty members and departments as part of their studies is not the same as between employer and employee,” the university says in a statement. Jack Nicoludis, a chemistry graduate student and one of the organizers of the UAW-affiliated Harvard Graduate Students Union, heralded the decision. “As teachers, the work we do allows faculty to have support for the work that needs to be done for classes. As researchers, the work we do supports grant proposals, intellectual property,
Columbia teaching and research assistants rallied on Dec. 5, 2014, to ask the university to recognize their union. and publications that all return money to the university,” he says. “What we want is a seat at the table with the administration” to negotiate terms of employment, he says, highlighting issues of concern to graduate students: grievance procedures, child care, and health care. The Service Employees International Union says, “Graduate assistants at Duke, Northwestern, Saint Louis University, American University, and countless other colleges and universities are taking immediate steps on campus and online to advance their efforts to build unions with their coworkers.”—JYLLIAN KEMSLEY
RENEWABLES
Wind, solar rising as crucial energy sources in U.S. and globally Renewable energy—particularly wind and solar—is continuing a rapid expansion and is becoming a key source of electricity in the U.S. and globally, say recent reports. A new analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration finds a shift in domestic renewable energy sources in recent years. Traditionally, hydroelectric dams and other renewable electricity generation technologies based on gravity-pulled water have been the main source of renewable energy.
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | AUGUST 29, 2016
But today, electrical output from nonhydropower sources—primarily wind and solar, but also biomass and geothermal— exceeds output from hydropower sources. For instance, EIA found that, in March and April of 2016, nonhydropower renewable electricity generation was more than 10% of the total mix of all U.S. electricity sources. This trend is global. Wind and solar are the fastest-growing energy sources throughout the world, according
to the International Energy Agency. The international group warns about difficulties merging these sources with their variable output into existing electrical grids, however. In a recent report, IEA presents operating strategies to more easily integrate and deploy these variable output energy sources, such as better weather and energy-demand forecasting, power plant scheduling, and energy storage.—JEFF
JOHNSON, special to C&EN
CREDIT: TIFFANY YEE-VO/GRADUATE WORKERS OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Chemistry graduate students trying to unionize at private universities got a boost last week, after a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) gave them the right to collective bargaining. Abhishek Chhetri, a biochemistry graduate student at Duke University, welcomed the news. “By being able to collectively bargain, we hope to improve conditions for all graduate student workers, thus benefiting everyone by allowing us to fully dedicate ourselves to our responsibilities of research and teaching,” he says. Teaching and research assistants at public colleges and universities have been able to join labor unions since the 1960s. But NLRB has gone back and forth on the issue of student collective bargaining at private institutions of higher learning. The board ruled in 2000 that New York University student assistants were employees and could unionize. In 2004, the board reversed itself, saying Brown University student assistants were not employees under the National Labor Relations Act. In the newest case, the Graduate Work-
