Edward Waters headed for trial for unrecognizing union

The Nationwide Labor Relations Board has filed a grievance towards Edward Waters College, a traditionally Black college in Florida, after the college stopped recognizing its school union, The Tributary reported. The case goes to trial in November.

Leaders on the college, which is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, withdrew recognition of its chapter of the American Affiliation of College Professors two years in the past, arguing the college’s “rights as a non secular instructional establishment” permitted them to take action.

In a letter to college members, directors wrote that eliminating the union would “permit the College to broaden its faith-based Christian mission, fairly than the political agendas typically related to federal labor insurance policies.” In response, the AAUP chapter filed a cost with the NLRB claiming the college violated federal labor legislation.

Edward Waters isn’t the primary spiritual larger ed establishment to argue that its spiritual standing allows it to shutter its school union, The Tributary famous. A 2020 determination by the NLRB regarding Bethany School, a Lutheran establishment in Kansas, and a federal court docket determination concerning Duquesne College, a Catholic establishment in Pittsburgh, broke with Obama-era precedent to rule that the NLRB didn’t have jurisdiction at spiritual establishments, paving the way in which for the argument Edward Waters leaders made. Additionally in 2020, Saint Leo College in Florida unrecognized its school union, citing its Catholic roots. Based mostly on the Trump-era ruling on Bethany, an NLRB decide concluded that Saint Leo certified for the spiritual exemption.

Edward Waters has till Sept. 12 to answer the NLRB grievance.