An op-ed piece by David Bonior, identified as a professor of labor studies at Wayne State University, charges that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency empowered with enforcing labor law, has stripped workers of legal protections during the last several months. Among examples, he cites a July ruling by the NLRB that declared graduate teaching and research assistants were students and not technically employees, therefore universities do not have to bargain with them.