LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- A Republican-led Senate panel has approved a bill to block unionization by graduate student research assistants at public universities.
The measure was approved 3-2 along party lines Tuesday by the Government Operations Committee. The bill advances to the Senate floor.
The legislation specifies that graduate student research assistants would be exempted from the definition of a public employee as related to collective bargaining rights.
The measure comes as University of Michigan graduate research assistants at the attempt to unionize. That case is pending before an administrative judge after the Michigan Employment Relations Commission last year reaffirmed a 1981 decision that bars research assistants from banding together.
The university's regents voted Tuesday to oppose the bill. Unions say the legislation is an attempt to undermine collective bargaining rights.