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Union Rights Curtailed at Church-Related Institutions
Unionizing at private institutions suffered a setback in February when a federal appellate court ruled that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) does not have jurisdiction over the University of Great Falls in Montana because it is a "bona fide religious institution." That means that the university is exempt from the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), a federal law that provides protections for most private-sector employees who wish to bargain collectively with their employers. The decision overturns a 2000 ruling by the labor board that the university had violated the NLRA by refusing to negotiate with professors who voted to form a union.
Relying on the 1979 U.S. Supreme Court decision in NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, the NLRB has made decisions about whether religiously affiliated institutions are exempt from its jurisdiction because religious propagation is the institution’s primary purpose. In the Great Falls case, the board concluded that despite having some Catholic elements, the university was not of a "substantial religious character," because only about a third of enrolled students are Catholic, professors and administrators are not required to be Catholic, the curriculum does not emphasize Catholicism, and the university’s board of trustees is a secular body that is not required to establish policies in keeping with those of the Catholic Church.
In ruling on The University of Great Falls v. NLRB, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia wrote that the NLRB had "reached the wrong conclusion because it applied the wrong test." The court interpreted NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago as offering much broader exemption to religiously affiliated institutions than that applied by the NLRB. Instead of inquiring into the activities of such an institution, the court said, the board should apply a simple "three-pronged test": Does the institution present itself to the public as religious? Is it a nonprofit institution? And is it affiliated with a religious organization?
Being under the jurisdiction of the NLRA does not in itself guarantee collective bargaining rights. A ruling in the landmark 1980 Supreme Court case, National Labor Relations Board v. Yeshiva University, found that faculty at that institution were ineligible for collective bargaining rights because they were managers rather than employees. The NLRB and the courts have relied on this decision as a precedent for denying such rights to faculty at other private institutions.
"Coupled with other troubling legal decisions in recent years, the Great Falls ruling further restricts the legal protections available to private-sector faculty who want to unionize," says Michael Mauer, director of the AAUP’s Department of Organizing and Services. "But we should keep in mind that unionizing may be possible, though difficult, even without labor board protection. And even without unions, faculty can safeguard their interests by forming cohesive advocacy organizations at the local level."
Faculty at the University of Great Falls had argued that they were not sufficiently involved with managing the university to be considered managers. In the ruling overturned by the federal appeals court, the NLRB had agreed with them, seeming to clear the way for collective bargaining. The appeals court did not address whether Great Falls faculty are managers, and its decision that the NLRA does not apply to the institution renders the point moot in this case.
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