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NLRB orders Seattle University: Count the adjuncts’ ballots!

ACT-adjuncts-contingentsThe following is from Adjuncts and Contingents Together Washington, a project of the SEIU Local 925.


SEATTLE (March 4, 2015) — In a resounding decision that clears the path for Seattle University contingent faculty to form a union, the Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled Tuesday that ballots impounded since the faculty’s May 2014 election should be counted.

The ruling comes just days after more than 400 people rallied on campus in support of quality education, fair compensation and the right of SU faculty to unionize during National Adjunct Walkout Day.

SU-adjuncts-15Feb25_chant“Seattle University contingent faculty are thrilled with the NLRB Regional Director’s decision today,” said Dr. Louisa Edgerly, Instructor of Communications and Journalism at Seattle University. “We hope that Seattle University administrators will put aside any remaining legal roadblocks to a vote count so that we can work together in the Jesuit and Catholic tradition to build a better SU.”

SU has until March 17 to decide whether to continue to waste precious tuition dollars to again appeal to the national NLRB in efforts to impede faculty from forming a union. The national Board would likely deny SU’s appeal quickly.

The latest decision uses the new national standards laid out by the NLRB in December 2014 in a separate ruling involving Pacific Lutheran University (PLU). Under the new tests, faculty must carry out a religious function to be denied the right to collective bargaining, not merely teach at a religiously-affiliated college, and must exercise effective managerial control to be considered management employees.

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