Section 1. Recognition
MIT recognizes the Union as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent, for the purposes of establishing wages, hours, benefits, and conditions of employment, for all graduate students enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) degree programs who are employed to provide instructional or research services, including research assistants, teaching assistants, and instructor G’s, but, excluding undergraduate students; graduate student resident advisors; graduate fellows who are not also employed as either research assistants or teaching assistants; hourly graders who are not also employed as either research assistants or teaching assistants; other hourly employees, provided they are employed consistent with the rules stated below; graduate students not seeking MIT degrees, including visiting students; graduate students conducting research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) who are either supervised or paid by MIT (but not both); office clericals, managers, guards, and supervisors as defined in the National Labor Relations Act.
The term “employee” as used in this Agreement shall refer to the employees in the aforementioned positions covered by this Agreement.
Section 2. MIT Graduate Students with Hourly Positions
Hourly positions are excluded from this Agreement. Excluded positions include, for example, hourly graders, hourly mentors, hourly proctors, hourly tutors, positions that do not involve research or instructional services, and positions that support K-12 programs or other programs providing instruction to non-MIT students.
Hourly research assistant positions and hourly teaching assistant positions shall be excluded from the bargaining unit covered by this Agreement, so long as the hourly position involves job responsibilities that are distinct from any required under a salaried RA or TA held by the student/employee and one of the following two scenarios applies:
A. The student/employee has one or more appointments or awards (RA, TA, and/or fellowship) that provide(s) full tuition and full salary/stipend support, relative to the applicable departmental/program tuition and stipend/salary levels for similarly situated students/employees; or
B. The student/employee does not have one or more appointments or awards (RA, TA, and/or fellowship) that provide(s) full tuition and full salary/stipend support, relative to the applicable departmental/program tuition and stipend/salary levels for similarly situated students/employees and the hourly position does not require an amount of work that equals or exceeds ninety (90) total hours during any Fall or Spring appointment period or sixty-five (65) total hours during any Summer appointment period.
In the event these conditions are not met, the student’s hourly RA/TA position shall be converted to a salaried RA/TA appointment and the student holding such converted position shall be an employee included as part of the bargaining unit covered by this Agreement. In no case will an hourly RA or TA position be covered by this Agreement. In the event the Union identifies an hourly position that it believes should be classified as a TA or RA position, it may notify MIT, and the parties shall meet and discuss in good faith whether any such position should be converted to a salaried RA and/or TA appointment as appropriate.