Labor Unions, Adjuncts, and the Mission and Identity of Catholic Universities

Horizons ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald J. Beyer
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Religious Liberty ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
National Labor Relations Act ◽  
Catholic Universities ◽  
The Right

Catholic social teaching (CST) has long endorsed the right of all workers to unionize. However, many US Catholics exhibit an antiunion bias. In addition, Catholic institutions have engaged in union busting, thereby flouting CST. Focusing on the recent efforts of adjuncts to unionize at Catholic universities, this article argues that union busting jeopardizes the faith and conscience formation of students and undermines the evangelizing mission of Catholic universities. The article debunks the appeal to religious liberty by Catholic institutions to circumvent the National Labor Relations Board's injunctions to allow adjuncts to unionize. It also refutes the argument that the National Labor Relations Act imposes a style of collective bargaining contrary to the harmonious vision of labor relations in CST. Succinctly stated, the article contends there is no legitimate reason for Catholic universities to thwart the unionization efforts of adjuncts, particularly given the systematically unjust work conditions many of them face.

The Return of Judicial Repression: What Has Happened to the Strike?

The Forum ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Rhomberg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
National Labor Relations Act ◽  
Current State ◽  
Class Power ◽  
The Right ◽  
American Labor

Discussions of the current state of American labor have overlooked the fact that the strike, a principal form of union and working class power, has virtually disappeared from American life. The rise of an anti-union institutional legal regime has undermined the right to strike and effectively reversed the structure of incentives for collective bargaining envisioned under the National Labor Relations Act. The dynamics of the current regime are illustrated by one of the largest and longest strikes of recent decades, the 1995 Detroit Newspapers strike. The consequences go beyond unionized labor and constitute a de-democratization of workplace governance in the United States.

Theology as Work: The Mandatum and the Rights of Labor

Horizons ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-134
Author(s):  
Patrick T. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Academic Freedom ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church ◽  
Safe Working

ABSTRACTMany oppose the mandatum as a threat to the academic freedom of Catholic scholars and the autonomy and credibility of Catholic universities. But the imposition of this juridical bond on working theologians is also in tension with Catholic Social Teaching on the rights and dignity of labor. Work is the labor necessary to earn our daily bread. But it is also the vocation by which we realize ourselves as persons and the profession through which we contribute to the common good. Thus, along with the right to a just wage and safe working conditions, Catholic Social Teaching defends workers' rights to a full partnership in the enterprise, and calls upon the church to be a model of participation and cooperation. The imposition of the mandatum fails to live up to this standard and threatens the jobs and vocations of theologians while undermining this profession's contribution to the church.

Permanent Replacements and the End of Labor's “Only True Weapon”

2008 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Logan
Keyword(s):  
Labor Relations ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
National Labor Relations Act ◽  
The Past ◽  
Permanent Replacement ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article analyzes the origins and impact of one of the most powerful antiunion weapons used by American employers during the past four decades: the right to use and threaten to use permanent replacement workers during economic strikes. It examines the policy debate over replacements in the 1930s and 1940s, the increasing use of permanent replacements in the 1970s and 1980s, the growth of a powerful and sophisticated “strike management industry,” and the unsuccessful efforts of organized labor and its political allies to amend the National Labor Relations Act to outlaw permanent replacements. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the relationship between the “striker replacement doctrine” and declining strike levels in the postwar decades.

scholarly journals Columbia University and Incarcerated Worker Labor Unions Under the National Labor Relations Act

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara Goad
Keyword(s):  
Labor Unions ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Labor Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
National Labor Relations Act ◽  
National Labor Relations Board ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Law Library

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research PapersKara Goad’s research examines the forms and terms of labor that incarcerated workers perform in American prisons, seeking to demonstrate that labor law could provide potential remedies for work-related grievances.Goad’s research includes traditional statutory and case law analysis along with examinations of prison statistics, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions and other administrative law materials relating to prisons and labor law. She uses her findings lay out a path for incarcerated workers to potentially unionize under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Labored Relations: Corporate Citizenship, Labor Unions, and Freedom of Association

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cedric E. Dawkins
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Corporate Citizenship ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Freedom Of Association ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Way

ABSTRACT:Globalization has brought increased attention to the notion that labor rights such as freedom of association—the right of workers to organize a union—are fundamental human rights. However, the vigorous opposition to freedom of association by US firms is largely ignored in the business ethics literature and exacerbated by compensatory corporate citizenship rating mechanisms that tend to mask labor rights deficiencies. I argue that because freedom of association is a hypernorm, instrumental to fully realizing basic human rights, labor rights and human rights are largely inseparable. Thus, respect for labor rights is a non-substitutable requisite of corporate citizenship. I conclude by providing examples of corporate labor relations strategies that respect freedom of association and business firms that are leading the way.

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