Loyola Marymount University Halts Faculty Unions Negotiations Citing ‘Religious Exemption’
In Southern California, I’m Carolann Duro for Land and Labor Radio.
Loyola Marymount University announced on Thursday that it would no longer be in union talks with its nearly 400 non-tenure track faculty, citing a religious exemption. Loyola Marymount is a Roman Catholic Institution.
Non-tenure track faculty recently voted to unionize, after a decade of resistance from the university. The university and union representatives have met 12 times since December.
The union has already filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board. In a letter posted online, LMU’s Board chair stated, “During the last ten months of bargaining, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) presented 39 proposals that the university considered and evaluated with care. The costs of those proposals—or a likely negotiated settlement—likely would have required unprecedented tuition increases of 18%, significant layoffs, and sweeping reductions in programs and services.”
They also wrote that they were invoking their constitutionally protected religious exemption. The US Supreme Court has ruled that religious schools do not need to recognize unions, as they are not under the purview of federal labor laws. Some religious universities have elected to anyway.
Leaders from the Service Employees International Union Local 712 accused Loyola Marymount of union-busting.
Some have pointed to Pope Leo XIII’s support for workers rights and unions, quoting his writing where he observed “The hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.” He then goes on to underscore the previous workingmen’s guilds being abolished and recommended a formation of quote “associations where workers unite their forces.”
LMU workers protested outside on campus grounds with signs painted “LMU Back to the Table Now” and expressed their willingness to resume negotiations.
For Land and Labor radio, I’m Carolann Duro.
