Harvard graduate students moved one step closer to unionizing after reaching an agreement with the University to hold an election on unionization next month, marking the first formal arrangement between the two parties.

The group of graduate students moving to unionize—Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers—also filed a petition to the National Labor Relations Board Tuesday to move forward with the process.

…

According to labor law expert and Stanford Law professor William B. Gould, a former chairman of the NLRB, the University could sign a neutrality agreement even now, “but the fact that they have entered into an election agreement means that this is very unlikely.”