WSU academic student employees vote to form union

PULLMAN — Graduate and undergraduate teaching and research assistants at Washington State University are seeking to form a union.

In a petition filed with the Public Employment Relations Commission, graduate teaching assistants are also seeking to includes students who work as tutors and graders, collectively known as academic student employees, according to a press release from the United Auto Workers.

The group is seeking to be recognized as a new bargaining unit.

Washington State University is the only major public research institution on the continental West Coast that doesn’t have a union for student employees, the press release said.

The new union would represent about 1,600 members, according to the press release.