Boston College has opposed a petition filed by the United Auto Workers (UAW) with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to represent graduate assistants and other graduate students.
Boston College is opposed to the unionization effort because we believe that our graduate student teaching and research assistants—who are engaged in the core work of the University—are primarily students, not employees. Furthermore, we are seeking an exemption from the jurisdiction of the NLRB, with respect to the petition filed by the United Auto Workers, to protect our freedom to pursue the religious dimensions of our mission.
The Catholic Church has long supported the rights of workers to organize and engage in collective bargaining, and Boston College has a longstanding relationship with two unions that represent several hundred BC employees. As a Jesuit, Catholic university, however, we believe that respecting the rights of workers to organize does not require support for government control over matters involving our graduate students, and that religious freedom, guaranteed by the Constitution, assures the right of faith-based institutions to be free from government interference in our academic affairs.
Throughout our 154-year history, Boston College’s commitment to student formation has been central to our mission as a Jesuit, Catholic university. We believe that everyone involved in teaching at Boston College—including graduate teaching assistants and research assistants—is directly involved in the formation of our students.
The NLRB’s implication that it can determine what components of our academic enterprise are religious and what are secular represents a serious misunderstanding of our mission. The NLRB is in no position to judge a university’s religiosity, let alone the role of each teaching assistant and research assistant in contributing to its religious mission.
Boston College has presented its argument to the NLRB regional office in Boston that our grad assistants are not employees, but rather students, and that the University should be exempt from NLRB jurisdiction based on the religious dimensions of our mission.
The NLRB regional office has issued a decision in favor of the United Auto Workers’ petition. As a result, Boston College will consider all appropriate legal remedies through the NLRB in Washington and the federal courts.