Adjuncts at Catholic College in N.Y. Get Go-Ahead for Union Vote

Adjuncts at Manhattan College, a Roman Catholic-affiliated institution in New York, are looking forward to a union election after a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board released a decision backing the instructors’ stance that a union would not threaten the college’s Catholic identity and that the labor board has jurisdiction. The decision against Manhattan College, closely watched by labor unions and religious organizations, cites various instances in which the college “is decidedly not holding itself out as a religious organization” to students, job applicants, and the public. In short, the decision says, the college is too secular to be outside the purview of the labor board.