NLRB UPDATE: UNION REPRESENTATION AND ADJUNCT FACULTY

[Omaha Steve]

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http://www.bna.com/nlrb-update-union-b17179922379/

Jan 23, 2015 / by Elizabeth J. Fabrizio

In ruling that it would assert jurisdiction over a petitioned-for bargaining unit of adjunct faculty at Pacific Lutheran University, the National Labor Relations Board adapted its analytical framework to take into account new administrative and economic realities facing employees of private universities. The NLRB recognized that tenure was becoming less common at universities and that participation in decision making differs significantly for tenure-track and for non-tenured faculty. If enforced by a federal appeals court, this decision could lead to an increase in unionization among faculty at private universities.

Religious Educational Environment

Pacific Lutheran University first argued that the NLRB should not assert jurisdiction over the petitioned-for unit because the university provided a “religious educational environment.” The board majority—Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce and Members Kent Y. Hirozawa and Nancy Schiffer—moved away from its “substantial religious character” test and instead looked to see whether PLU held itself out, on its website and in its handbooks, bylaws, and articles of incorporation, as creating a religious educational environment. The board found that PLU met this threshold.

Next, the board looked at whether PLU held out its adjunct faculty as “performing a specific role in creating and maintaining” that religious environment. The NLRB majority found that PLU failed to demonstrate that it required adjunct faculty, who make up roughly half of its faculty, to have any religious function or that it required their course materials to have any religious component.

Managerial Employees

PLU argued that full-time adjunct faculty were managerial employees who could vote in the faculty assembly on matters including curriculum and admission criteria, as well as other matters relating to university governance and academic policy. The NLRB unanimously agreed that full-time adjunct faculty were not managerial employees who would be excluded from coverage of the NLRA.


FULL story at link.