In early February, the National Labor Relations Board requested comments on whether and how unions can seek to organize adjunct and other faculty at religious institutions of higher education. This is not a simple matter: the whole point of unions is to gain and wield power to protect and advance the interests of their members and other employees, but just such an exercise of power might unconstitutionally interfere with the freedom of the religious institution’s leadership to make decisions dictated by the institution’s religious commitments. These dangers have been highlighted by the US Supreme Court in key cases, shielding religious higher education from unionization efforts.

Now the NLRB seeks to reopen the issues, asking whether it has interpreted those Supreme Court cases rightly (or perhaps it is looking for ways to get around the Court’s guidelines) and also whether governance arrangements and faculty roles have changed in colleges and universities such that the union question should or can be examined anew.

Two comments. One. The Inside Higher Ed article on the matter notes: “Adjuncts have argued that they aren’t looking to challenge any college’s religious direction, and that they want collective bargaining for issues of wages, health insurance and job security. The vast majority of adjuncts at religious colleges teach secular subjects and respect the right of various denominations to settle theological matters, union leaders say.” And yet, of course, there is no impermeable barrier separating secular and theological matters. And there is no impermeable barrier walling off decisions about faculty wages and benefits from other decisions about how an institution will operate (will high wages or generous benefits require dropping some theological courses? will the union dispute the administration’s decision to sue over the contraceptives mandate?).

Two. That institutions of religious higher education may oppose unionization on religious freedom grounds does not mean that those institutions are per se against unions or worker rights. Catholic social teaching specifically supports unionization, and Abraham Kuyper, one of the founders of modern Calvinist social thinking, not only supported workers’ rights but helped to organize Protestant workers (and employers, too).

Further reading

Michael P. Moreland (Villanova Law School), Testimony to the joint subcommittee hearing on the NLRB, House Education and the Workforce Committee, Sept. 12, 2012.