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Marquette University uses religious exemption to squash unionizing efforts
November 30, 2024 // e-track employees from Marquette's Klingler College of Arts and Sciences. (Ericka Tucker) by Heidi Schlumpf View Author Profile hschlumpf@ncronline.org Follow on Twitter at @heidischlumpf Join the Conversation Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more November 25, 2024Share on FacebookShare on TwitterEmail to a friendPrint By day, students at Marquette University may have Daniel Collette as their philosophy professor, but at night, he could be their Uber driver or DoorDash delivery person. The divorced dad of two also has had to give blood to make enough money to make ends meet. Collette is a full-time faculty member at the Jesuit university in Milwaukee and he has a doctoral degree. But as a "non-tenure-track" employee, he makes about a third less than other faculty on the tenure track. The typical non-tenure-track salary at Marquette is about $43,000, according to faculty who spoke to NCR. (Marquette does not publish salary information.) "I am truly tired to the bone," Collette told NCR. "It affects me, my health, my kids — and my students as well. The fact of the matter is that I'm not able to give them the same attention I would if I could just do my one job." Collette has joined other non-tenure-track faculty from Marquette's Klingler College of Arts and Sciences who are seeking to unionize to address issues of salary, workload and other disparities between tenure-track and non-tenure-track employees. He says the union could be "life-changing" for him. But Marquette is using a religious exemption to refuse to recognize the union — a move the pro-union faculty and their supporters say goes against the school's own mission and Catholic identity. "Continuing our strong partnership with faculty and staff — without needing to engage the union as an outside third party that may not share our same values — is the best way to deliver our Catholic, Jesuit mission and serve our students," Monica MacKay, senior director of university communication, said in a statement provided to NCR. Catholic social teaching strongly supports the right of workers to unionize. Pope Francis has spoken out in support of unions, as have the U.S. bishops. "Catholic social teaching supports the right of workers to choose whether to organize, join a union, and bargain collectively, and to exercise these rights without reprisal," says the bishops' document "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship." Marquette faculty and their supporters — including nearly 600 students and 75 tenured faculty who have signed petitions of support — question how the university's decision squares with its Catholic identity and mission. One sign at a Nov. 8 pro-union protest asserted: "Jesuit values = livable wages." Advertisement "They are essentially claiming a First Amendment right for a Catholic university to not follow its own mission," said Chris Gooding, an assistant teaching professor of theology and member of the union's steering committee. "That is not so much a right to religious freedom as it is a right to hypocrisy." In October, more than 65% of full-time, non-tenure-track faculty in the college of arts and sciences signed authorization cards expressing their desire to collectively bargain with the university through the United Campus Workers-Wisconsin union. On Oct. 25, university administration announced it would not sign an agreement to recognize the union. Religious colleges and universities don't have to accept elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), thanks to a decision during President Donald Trump's first administration that broadened the definition of religious freedom. They can, however, voluntarily choose to recognize unions and negotiate with them. Since that NLRB decision in 2020, Boston College, Seattle University, and St. Leo University in Florida have claimed the religious exemption, while St. Louis University instead chose to recognize a union of graduate student workers. St. Louis, Fordham, Loyola University Chicago, Georgetown and Santa Clara universities also all collectively bargain with faculty unions, according to Marquette's union organizers.