Posts tagged Loyola Marymount University
Labor standoff at LA’s Loyola Marymount University a battle over Catholic teaching
February 1, 2026 // On the pages LMU published profiling the dispute, the institution defends its action by stating “invocation of the religious exemption is lawful, grounded in the U.S. Constitution, and consistent with Supreme Court and NLRB precedent. This right cannot be waived and may be exercised at any point.” “The Board reached this decision to protect LMU’s Catholic mission, its students, and its long-term sustainability,” Griff McNerney, LMU’s senior director of media and public relations, told OSV News in an e-mailed statement. “After months of discernment, trustees concluded that direct partnership with faculty — without SEIU’s involvement — would enable faster, more mission-aligned progress toward shared goals.” McNerney noted, “From December 2024 to Summer 2025, LMU reviewed 39 proposals and made counterproposals, none of which were accepted by the union.”
Op-ed: Faculty leaders fear St. John’s University in NY could lose its union
December 9, 2025 // Institutions that have claimed the religious exemption include Boston College, Duquesne University, St. Leo University, Marquette University, and most recently, Loyola Marymount University. And now, faculty union leaders at St. John's University in Queens, New York, are sounding the alarm that they believe the 155-year-old Vincentian institution is laying the groundwork to follow the same path as other Catholic colleges.
LMU faculty union calls strike vote after university says it has ‘religious exemption’ from organized labor
September 29, 2025 // Untenured faculty at Loyola Marymount University launched an unfair labor practice strike authorization vote this week following the school’s announcement that it will no longer recognize or bargain with the faculty union for a first contract. The union had been negotiating for a contract with LMU’s administration for about 10 months. Then, in mid-September, campus leaders announced that LMU is invoking a religious exemption from the National Labor Relations Board’s jurisdiction. The board oversees unionization efforts and protects the rights of private sector employees
Loyola Marymount abruptly rescinds recognition of faculty union, claiming religious exemption
September 21, 2025 // A 1979 Supreme Court decision regarding the Catholic Bishop of Chicago ruled that the NLRB should not seek to regulate religious institutions, arguing that problems with religious freedom protections enshrined in the 1st Amendment can arise when a government office tries to determine if certain activities are religious or not. In the decades since, rulings by federal courts and the NLRB have focused on creating a standard to deem whether a school is a religious institution, and whether the labor board can assert itself when it comes to employees who are not involved with its religious mission. Recent rulings have further curtailed the NLRB’s reach.