Controversy over International Students Joining Union at UW

U. Of Wis. Union Excludes Foreign Students – Channel 3000 January 22, 2010 International students won’t be allowed to join a union for research assistants at the University of Wisconsin–Madison under a new policy that labor activists believe is the first of its kind in the U.S. All-American Union – Inside Higher Ed January 25, 2010 The University of Wisconsin at Madison says that it is trying to protect its international students by keeping them out of a new union for graduate research assistants. The argument — which union activists and some independent experts call unprecedented — has angered graduate students and advocates for international students. Wisconsin’s Stance on International Students and Union Changed, Message Suggests – The Chronicle of Higher Education January 26, 2010 The University of Wisconsin at Madison says it believes international students would be putting their visas at risk if they joined a new union for graduate research assistants, but an e-mail message that was part of an exchange between senior officials at the institution last year suggests that the university didn’t always take that position.