The National Labor Relations Board has rejected Loyola University Chicago’s argument that its instructors of English as a Second Language should not be allowed to unionize because they are not true members of the faculty and they serve a religious function.
In a decision issued on Friday, Paul Hitterman, acting regional director in the NLRB’s Chicago office, dismissed as irrelevant Loyola’s argument that the instructors should not be considered as faculty members because they do not teach courses leading to a degree. Mr. Hitterman said nothing in the board’s criteria for allowing such union elections confines them to instructors who teach degree-bearing courses, and Loyola has itself referred to the instructors as “faculty members” in their annual contracts.
In rejecting Loyola’s argument that the First Amendment’s religious-freedom protections preclude the Jesuit university’s ESL instructors from holding union elections with federal oversight, Mr. Hitterman said he had found no evidence that the instructors serve any sort of religious function.
The Loyola ruling is one of several NLRB decisions clearing the way for union elections at religious colleges based on new criteria set forth by the board in December 2014, in a case involving Pacific Lutheran University. The board has also ruled in favor of union organizers at Manhattan College, Duquesne University, and Saint Xavier University, all Roman Catholic institutions where adjunct instructors sought to form collective-bargaining units.
In January, however, it ruled against the unionization of tenured and tenure-track faculty members at Carroll College, a Roman Catholic institution in Montana, based on its conclusion that they are so involved in that institution’s management they should be considered as supervisors rather than employees.
