Dive Brief:

• Unionized graduate students at New York University reached a deal with administrators Tuesday, eliminating the threat of a strike during midterm exams, according to the New York Business Journal.
• The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that sticking points in the contract negotiations included health care premiums, which students wanted the school to fully cover, and back pay — students wanted $750 while the university most recently offered $500.
• Details of the tentative contract are not being disclosed until it is fully ratified by the administration and students, who unionized through the United Auto Workers local 2110.

Dive Insight:

NYU graduate students enjoyed bargaining power under a former union, which dissolved in 2005, according to The Wall Street Journal. If the graduate student’s unionization through the UAW is not the only deal of its kind, it is certainly part of a very small minority. The National Labor Relations Board has ruled against Brown University graduate students and dismissed a petition by Columbia University graduate students attempting to unionize. The NYU administration’s recognition of the union outside of NLRB action has worried some across the industry. Like the unionization drive by Northwestern University’s football players last spring, the NYU graduate student union is seen as precedent-setting. Columbia, for one, has continued to see concerted organizing efforts by students since the NLRB dismissed its petition this year.