Foreign students excluded from university union: MADISON, Wis. — 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.
University officials insist the policy was meant to protect international students. They say the students' visas, which limit them to 20 hours of work per week, might be jeopardized, although union leaders say such problems haven't arisen at other universities.
The policy is part of a law signed by Gov. Jim Doyle last year granting UW-Madison research assistants the right to form a union starting in July.
Such a distinction between U.S. and international students is believed to be a first nationwide, according to representatives of labor unions and the university. The policy will exclude roughly 700 out of the 2,500 research assistants from unionizing at UW-Madison, long a national research powerhouse.
