LMU rescinds recognition of its faculty union

Staffers are in shock after Jesuit university decides to invoke ‘religious exemption.’

- By Suhauna Hussain

After 10 months of negotiations, Loyola Marymount University has abruptly announced that it would no longer recognize its faculty union.

The news, delivered in an email to students and employees on Sept. 12, sent shock waves through the union, which represents nearly 400 part-time and full-time educators who do not hold tenure-track positions.

Paul S. Viviano, chairman of the university’s board of trustees, said in the email that the university was ending its engagement with the union by invoking its “constitutionally protected religious exemption” from the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board, which governs collective bargaining for private employers.

“Iwas floored,” said Maureen Gonzales, 35, who has worked part time as a dance instructor on campus since 2016 and serves as an elected member of the union’s bargaining team. “It’s outrageous.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that religious colleges are not under the purview of federal labor laws and need not recognize unions. Many religious colleges have chosen to do so voluntarily.

But in recent years, several educational institutions — now including Loyola Marymount — have claimed the religious exemption suddenly and without warning, effectively using it to shut down established faculty unions that they had previously recognized.

Loyola Marymount’s announcement has sparked protest and drawn allegations of union-busting from faculty members as well as leaders of Service Employees International Union Local 721, the labor group that represents them. Unionized employees have accused the university of aligning with Trump administration efforts “to stomp out the labor movement,” and plan to file an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB.

“Let’s be clear: This action is illegal,” said David Green, president and executive director of SEIU 721. “[F]aculty members will fight this with everything we have. LMU messed with the wrong union.”