Alexa Coultoff

One of the chalk messages advocates with GENU-UAW wrote on campus in April 2023. The NLRB in August dismissed GENU-UAW’s charge that the university illegally intimidated organizers by having NUPD officers question organizers who participated in chalking.

The National Labor Relations Board earlier this month dismissed unionizing graduate student workers’ claim that the university engaged in illegal labor practices, ruling there was no evidence of “any unlawful interrogation or threat in response to protected activity.”

Graduate student workers at Northeastern, or GENU-UAW, have been attempting to unionize for almost eight years, and in July, received authorization to hold a union certification election. During spring 2023, before receiving authorization, they organized protests and chalking events to advocate for the university to recognize their right to unionize.

After a chalking event in April, graduate students alleged Northeastern University Police officers illegally interrogated students regarding the event. GENU-UAW then filed an unfair labor practice charge, or ULP charge, with the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, claiming the university had violated federal labor law. But in an Aug. 9 decision, the NLRB dismissed the charge, ruling the university had not engaged in any unlawful activity.

“We appreciate the NLRB’s careful consideration of the facts and are pleased with the finding that the union’s allegations were without merit,” a Northeastern spokesperson said in an email statement to The News.

GENU-UAW did not respond to requests for comment.

According to the NLRB dismissal letter The News obtained through a public records request, individuals wrote on a “2023” display on April 27, referring to the structure decorating Centennial Common for the class of 2023 graduation ceremony. Northeastern subsequently investigated the incident and “questioned individuals who were involved,” the document stated.

Niki Thomas, a fifth-year bioengineering graduate student worker, said in a May statement to The News that Northeastern police officers visited her workplace to interrogate her following the chalking event.

“After participating in a chalking activity, I was shocked to have armed officers show up at my lab desk without notice to threaten me with false charges,” Thomas said in the statement.

The officers allegedly said Thomas had engaged in vandalism for drawing on school property on Centennial, Thomas told The News in a separate email interview. Northeastern’s chalking guidelines only allow student organizations to chalk in permitted areas with university-provided chalk, or the chalking “will be considered vandalism.”

GENU-UAW’s ULP charge, filed May 5 with the NLRB, alleged the university had illegally used coercive interrogation tactics to intimidate the student workers — a violation of Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act. Days after the filing, Boston City Council passed a resolution which, in-part, condemned the university for allegedly sending NUPD officers “to surveil, harass, and exclusively target [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] and trans workers.” 

Upon reviewing the evidence, the NLRB’s regional director Laura A. Sacks wrote in the dismissal letter that the board found the university engaged in no illegal activity.

“The evidence did not show any unlawful interrogation or threat in response to protected activity,” Sacks wrote. “Thus, it does not appear that the Northeastern [sic] violated the Act by questioning employees about certain conduct as part of an investigation. Therefore, I am dismissing your charge.”

Weeks before the Aug. 9 dismissal, the NLRB sided with GENU-UAW in a July 14 decision authorizing graduate student workers to hold a union vote. The September vote, held for graduate workers at Northeastern’s Boston, Burlington and Nahant campuses, will determine whether student workers are represented in bargaining talks with the university by a collective bargaining unit.