Harvard College, NLRB Case No. 01-RC-186442

On December 12, 2017, the NLRB Board issued a decision denying Harvard University's Request for Review seeking to challenge a July 7, 2017 decision by NLRB Region 1 Director John J. Walsh, Jr, which affirmed a Hearing Officer's report and recommendations concerning challenged ballots and objections filed by Harvard College and the Harvard Graduate Students Union-UAW (HGSU-UAW) following a representation election held on November 16 and 17, 2016. The college also requested a stay of proceedings pending the outcome of its Request for Review. 

 

The at-issue unit includes approximately 3,556 student employees. The tally of ballots from the election demonstrated that 1,272 student employees voted in favor of HGSU-UAW representation, and 1,456 employees voted against. There were an additional 314 challenged ballots.

The November 16-17, 2016 election was conducted following a stipulated election agreement that defined the Harvard student employee unit in the following manner:

All students enrolled in Harvard degree programs employed by the Employer who provide instructional services at Harvard University, including graduate and undergraduate Teaching Fellows (teaching assistants, teaching fellows, course assistants); and all students enrolled in Harvard degree programs (other than undergraduate students at Harvard College) employed by the Employer who serve as Research Assistants (regardless of funding sources, including those compensated through Training Grants). This unit includes students employed by Harvard University and enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Business School, the Division of Continuing Education, Harvard Graduate School of Design; Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Harvard Law School, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Harvard College, excluding all undergraduate students serving as research assistants, and all other employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.

University of Chicago, NLRB Case No. 13-RC-198365

 

On December 15, 2017, the NLRB issued a decision granting a Request for Review by the University of Chicago, in part, from a Regional Director's July 10, 2017 Supplemental Decision and Certification of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) as the exclusive representative of  the following bargaining unit of 199 student library employees:

 

Included: All hourly paid student employees of the University of Chicago Libraries, including students employed at the Joseph Regenstein Library, the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, Eckhart Library, John Crerar Library, D'Angelo Law Library, and the Social Services Administration Library.  

 

Excluded: All employees represented by other labor organizations and covered by other collective-bargaining agreements, temporary employees, managerial employees, guards, and professional employees and supervisors as defined in the National Labor Relations Act.  

 

On June 8, 2017, the tally of ballots found that the library student employees voted 67-13 in favor of IBT representation in an election held on June 2, and 5-8, 2017. 

 

In its December 15, 2017 decision, the NLRB Board ruled 2-1 that a hearing should be held concerning Objection 2 raised by the University of Chicago concerning the conduct of the election:  

 

The University objects to conduct affecting the results of the election because on  

June 2, 2017 [IBT's] agents, wearing union insignia, stationed themselves in locations where voters would be forced to pass in order to get to the polling places.

The NLRB Board majority found that the university in its offer of proof had identified "witnesses who directly observed alleged surveillance by the [IBT's] agents at each of the two voting locations, in addition to photographs of the agents and the signs they displayed. The offered testimony indicates that the [IBT's] agents stationed themselves where voters had to pass in order to vote at the SSA location. A hearing would help determine whether, among other things, the agents at the Regenstein location likewise stationed themselves in areas voters would be forced to pass."  

Bethany College, NLRB Case Nos.14-CA-201546 and 14-CA-201584 

 

On December 6, 2017, the NLRB issued a decision denying a motion to dismiss, or in the alternative for summary judgment, by Bethany College concerning a complaint issued by the NLRB Region 14 Director on August 30, 2017 based on unfair labor practice charges filed by historians Thomas Jorsch and Lisa Guinn following their terminations on June 27, 2017.   

The complaint alleged, inter alia, that Bethany College violated the National Labor Relations Act by seeking to have faculty sign an agreement not to disclose a proposed tenure plan, by prohibiting employees from discussing their terms and conditions of employment, and by retaliating against Jorsch and Guinn for engaging in protected concerted activities.  

Following issuance of the complaint, Bethany College filed a motion to dismiss, or in the alternative for summary judgment, asserting that the NLRB lacked jurisdiction because the institution is religiously affiliated under NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago , 440 U.S. 490 (1979).  In denying the motion, the NLRB Board concluded that the college had failed to demonstrate that there were no genuine issues of material facts warranting a judgment as a matter of law.  

 On December 1, 2017, new NLRB General Counsel Peter B. Robb issued a memorandum to all NLRB Regional Offices that, inter alia, set forth a list of significant legal issues that might arise in cases that should be submitted to the NLRB's

Division of Advice.   

 

In his memorandum, General Counsel Robb also withdrew a January 31, 2017 Report on the Statutory Rights of University Faculty and Students in the Unfair Labor Practice Context issued by former NLRB General Counsel Richard F. Griffin, Jr.   

 

In the January 2017 memorandum, former NLRB General Counsel Griffin summarized NLRB case law with respect to employee status under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in the university setting and explained how his office would apply NLRB Board representational decisions in the unfair labor practice context.   

 

In his memorandum, former NLRB General Counsel Griffin concluded that scholarship football players satisfied the definition of employee under the NLRA and the common law, and therefore had the right to engage in concerted activities for "mutual aid or protection" under NLRA despite the NLRB's decision in Northwestern University, 362 NLRB No. 167 (2015) declining to assert jurisdiction over a representation case filed on behalf scholarship football players at  Northwestern.

 

   

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

 

The Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy (JCBA) is the National Center's peer review journal co-edited by Jeffrey Cross, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Eastern Illinois University, and Steve Hicks, Professor of English, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania.  

California-AAUP will be holding its annual meeting on February 10, 2018 at Pepperdine University with keynote speaker Theresa Montaño, Vice President, California Teachers Association, Professor of Chicana/Chicano Studies, CSU Northridge, and former member of the National Center's Board of Advisors.    

Registration has begun for the Bargaining for the Common Good in Higher Education Convening will take place on February 22-24, 2018 at Rutgers University.  It will "bring together leaders from higher education and health care unions, student groups, racial justice and other community organizations from across the country to strategize about how to transform contract negotiations into broader community fights and how to wage inspiring common good campaigns."  For more information, contact Marilyn Sneiderman at  [email protected] .