U of Missouri dismissive of grad student unionization effort

The filing was the university's official response to a lawsuit filed May 11 by the Coalition of Graduate Workers, which is asking the court to order the four-campus University of Missouri system to recognize that graduate assistants are workers with bargaining rights protected by the state Constitution and to honor a vote held in April selecting the coalition as their union.

Joseph Moore, outreach coordinator for the coalition, said the filing has nothing new in it and that the group "expected them to challenge the election and the makeup of the bargaining unit."

Graduate assistants have been organizing since the university gave graduate assistants 24-hour notice in August that they would no longer receive health insurance subsidies because of an IRS interpretation of the Affordable Care Act.