St. Louis University, two NYC Catholic high schools join list of Catholic institutions with union employees
Catholic institutions, such as hospitals, schools and social service providers, employ approximately 1 million American workers. This year a few Catholic colleges (such as Duquesne, Manhattan, St Xavier University and Seattle) continued to draw attention through determined efforts to deny their adjunct faculty the right to form a union. Fortunately, this handful of colleges represent the exception, not the rule. More than five hundred Catholic institutions around the nation exemplify Catholic Social Teaching in their employment practices by bargaining with unions representing their employees.
The Catholic Labor Network celebrates these institutions in its annual Gaudium et Spes report listing these institutions by state and Diocese. In it you will find more than 300 Catholic K-12 schools, 150 Catholic hospitals and nursing homes, more than 30 Catholic colleges, and a variety of other Catholic institutions whose employees enjoy union representation.
This year we are pleased to report several promising developments:
- Teachers at two New York Archdiocese Catholic schools, LaSalle Academy and John S. Burke, joined the Federation of Catholic Teachers, an OPEIU affiliate.
- Two groups of employees at St. Louis University have union contracts: food service/cafeteria workers (UNITE HERE) and adjunct instructors (SEIU)
- Notre Dame de Namur University (Diocese of Sacramento) has reached a first contract with the SEIU covering both tenured faculty and adjunct faculty.
- The Fordham University administration announced that the school respected the right of adjunct faculty to decide for themselves if they wanted a union, and would stay neutral in any organizing campaign
- Loyola University Chicago empaneled a “Just Employment Task Force” to examine its labor relations practices, with a report anticipated soon.
CLICK HERE to read the report in its entirety!