At Duquesne U. Admins Take Adjunct Union Fight to Federal Appeals Court
by P.D. Lesko
Since 2012, when the adjunct faculty at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh voted to affiliate with the United Steelworkers, AdjunctNation has followed the saga of the part-timers in their fight for better pay and working conditions. Three months after that April 2012 vote, administrators at the university filed an appeal. Ballots were impounded pending a decision on Duquesne’s appeal to be exempted from NLRB jurisdiction on grounds of religious freedom.
Now, six years after the adjunct faculty voted to affiliate with the United Steelworkers, Duquesne University announced it will take its opposition to an adjunct faculty union on its campus to federal appeals court, calling a brand-new directive by the National Labor Relations Board that it recognize and bargain with the group “unconstitutional.”
Duquesne officials have for years argued that as a Catholic university it was not under the NLRB’s jurisdiction. The Catholic church, however, has a favorable attitude toward labor unions and the rights of workers to organize that stretches back over 100 years.
For instance, in 1891 Pope Leo XIII wrote a groundbreaking encyclical, Rerum Novarum (“On the Condition of Labor”) which argued, among other things, that a worker had a right to a wage sufficient to support the worker and his or her family. The workers’ rights also extended, said Pope Leo, to reasonable hours, rest periods, health safeguards, and a decent work environment. Pope John Paul II in his encyclical on labor, Laborem Exercens (1981) asserted the fundamental principle of “the priority of labor over capital.” John Paul II insists that capital exists to serve labor: “There is a need for ever new movements of solidarity of the workers and with the workers…The Church is firmly committed to this cause, for it considers it to be its mission, its service, a proof of its fidelity to Christ…”
In April 2017, five years after the adjunct faculty voted to form a union, the NLRB instructed Duquesne to recognize and bargain with the adjunct faculty union. In March 2018, the NLRB confirmed its previous ruling and instructed Duquesne to recognize the adjunct faculty union. Instead, Duquesne officials filed suit in federal appeals court. After the most recent court case was filed, the United Steelworkers implored Duquesne University to stop resisting its now-organized adjunct faculty.
“Duquesne needs to stop its legal maneuvering, acknowledge the results of the election and negotiate with its adjunct faculty for a fair contract,” said USW International president Leo Gerard.
But Duquesne president Ken Gormley made it clear that the prolonged fight that has attracted national attention is not likely to end any time soon if the federal labor board continues to assert it has jurisdiction over the Catholic university.
A three-member NLRB panel in Washington D.C. on Wednesday issued an order, again siding with the agency’s regional office in a bitterly contested five-plus-year case pitting issues of worker rights against an institution’s religious identity. As such, the dispute has garnered national attention.
It stems from a 2012 vote by faculty in the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts to form an association that is part of the United Steelworkers. Previous NLRB rulings have sided with the right of those faculty to organize.
Duquesne has argued — thus far unsuccessfully — that the NLRB lacks jurisdiction over Duquesne, given its religious mission as a Catholic institution. It has previously signaled intent to seek legal relief if needed, but Duquesne President Ken Gormley in an email formally notified the campus this week that the case is headed to court.
“You may recall that in prior correspondence, the next steps in the process were outlined, including that the University would defend its rights in court if necessary,” Mr. Gormley wrote in his letter Wednesday. “Regrettably, due to the NLRB’s unconstitutional action, the University is filing a Petition for Review in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in March 2018 shortly after the NLRB reaffirmed its 2017 finding that the Steelworkers in a statement said adjuncts have prevailed against what it called the administration’s “union-busting activity” from the campus election, to favorable decisions before the NLRB’s regional and national headquarters.
The union calls the school’s stance hypocritical given the Catholic church’s support of labor unions.
“It’s simply shameful to see a university administration which carries the banner of the Catholic Church violate the teaching of the very faith they so loudly profess,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “Hopefully the current leadership will see the error of their ways and recognize the rights of the part-time faculty members.”
Adam Davis, a part-time faculty member who is among the original organizers of the faculty drive and teaches history, asked: “When are they going to stop wasting an enormous sum of tuition dollars on this fruitless effort to strip teachers of their rights?”
Duquesne president Ken Gormley, in an email to all faculty and staff wrote: “The latest decision rested on a technical violation of the National Labor Relations Act.” He alleged that two of the three members who made the decision, including the current chairman, gave no opinion on the merits of the case.
Gormley said the NRLB’s general counsel recently opined that the decision in favor of the union is unconstitutional.
“The University’s Catholic and Spiritan mission is what makes the University different than non-religious academic institutions and entities,” Mr. Gormley stated.
