Washington Update

NLRB Decides on Unionization Case at Carroll College

A decision by a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board concerning a faculty unionization effort at Carroll College in Montana provides the first example of application of the new standards set out by the Board in its 2014 Pacific Lutheran decision.

The full time tenure and tenure track faculty at Carroll sought recognition for a union affiliated with the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. The college opposed recognition of the union on two grounds—the religious nature of the college, and the managerial status of the faculty under the Yeshiva standard.

Applying the Board’s Pacific Lutheran ruling, the regional director found first that the college was exempt from the Board’s jurisdiction because of its religious character, based on the college’s policy provision for termination of a faculty member for “continued serious disrespect or disregard for the Catholic character or mission” of the college. It was further ruled that, even if the college had not met the religious character test, the college had demonstrated that the Carroll faculty do “exercise managerial authority with regard to academic programs, academic policy, and personnel policy and decisions,” and were therefore not eligible for unionization.


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Jon Fuller

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