On June 30, 2015, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, where plaintiffs argue that the First Amendment prohibits a California statutory mandate requiring all non-union members in a public sector bargaining unit to pay a fee for the costs associated with collective bargaining.  In the alternative, plaintiffs challenge the procedures under the California law requiring a public employee to opt out of making financial contributions in support non-chargeable union expenditures.

The following are the legal questions that the Supreme Court has agreed to determine:

1. Whether Abood v. Detroit Board of Education., 431 U.S. 209 (1977), should be overruled and public-sector "agency shop" arrangements invalidated under the First Amendment;

The Supreme Court's recent order in Friedrichs was issued on the first anniversary of the decision in Harris v. Quinn, where the Court struck down as unconstitutional an agency fee arrangement for quasi-public domestic heath care workers in Illinois.  

Jeffrey Hirsch has stated, the Harris decision suggests that a majority of the current Supreme Court might not be prepared to overrule Abood.  Instead, Hirsch believes it more likely that a Court majority will sustain the plaintiffs' challenge to California's procedural system that requires non-members to affirmatively object to the payment of fees for nonchargeable activities by the union.   

Although the final outcome in Friedrichs is not certain, there is little question that at least four Justices on the Supreme Court believe that an open shop is constitutionally mandated in the public sector, and probably in the private sector as well.  As a practical matter, a broad majority ruling in Friedrichs striking down all agency fee requirements on First Amendment grounds will adversely impact labor-management relations on campus, and, ironically, might render superfluous the private sector right to work provision in Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.
 

Included: All full-time and regular part-time core faculty and tenured faculty employed by Lesley University at its Cambridge, Massachusetts campuses, including faculty with titles of Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, and University Professor.

On May 19, 2015, following a card check, SEIU was voluntary recognized by the Schenectady County Community College and the County of Schenectady as the exclusive representative of the following faculty bargaining unit at Schenectady County Community College: 

Included: All part-time adjunct teaching faculty.

Excluded: All full-time teaching faculty, all directors and supervisors, all management and confidential employees, and all other employees who are not part-time adjunct teaching faculty. 

Following a representation election, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission on June 29, 2015 certified the Michigan Education Association as the exclusive representative of the following bargaining unit at Northwestern Michigan College:

Included:  All Faculty Academic Chairs.

Excluded: All others.

Webster University, NLRB Case No. 14-RC-149539

The NLRB Board on July 7, 2015 issued a decision and certification of election results concerning a mail ballot election held between April 24, 2015 and May 8, 2015 involving Webster University instructors in the following unit:  

All faculty with the title instructor employed by Webster University who teach at least one credit-bearing course in a degree-granting program at the following campuses in the St. Louis Metropolitan area: Gateway, Winghaven, Westport and St. Louis Home, who were employed by the Employer during the payroll period ending during the most recent employment period, including employees who did not work during that period because they were ill, on vacation, or were temporarily laid off, and employees who have taught at least one credit-bearing course during the Fall 2014 semester/term or during the Spring 2015 semester/term.  

The tally found that two ballots were cast in favor of SEIU representation, two against, and one ballot challenged.  In its July 7, 2015 decision, the NLRB adopted the Regional Director's report and recommendation sustaining the challenge to the determinative ballot based on the fact that the voter destroyed the secrecy of her ballot.  

Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit, NLRB Case No. 06-RC-080933

Duquesne University filed a request with the NLRB on June 19, 2015 seeking review of the Region 6 Director's June 5, 2015 decision, recommendation and order that rejected the university's objection to the NLRB asserting jurisdiction over a representation petition filed by the United Steelworkers seeking to represent a unit of some of the university's part-time adjunct faculty.         

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has issued new regulations to claify

The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a helpful guide for administrators and labor representatives on best practices concerning restroom access for transgender workers.  The guide emphasizes that all employees are entitled to access to restrooms that correspond with their gender identity. The guide was issued on June 1, 2015 and is available here.  

The National Center will be participating in a panel discussion at the annual conference of the Association of Labor Relations Agencies (ALRA), which will take place on July 18-21, 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The panel is entitled Recent Developments in Higher Education Collective Bargaining and Organizing.  It will examine recent developments including the upsurge in contingent faculty organizing and collective bargaining.  Speakers will include National Center Executive Director William A. Herbert, Jeffery Frumkin, Associate Vice Provost and Senior Director, AHR, University of Michigan, and a member of the National Center's Board of Advisors, and Maria Maisto, President of the New Faculty Majority.  Click here for ALRA conference agenda.