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Loyola Marymount University Faculty Condemn University’s Outrageously Illegal Attempt to Bust Union, Demand LMU Resume Contract Bargaining Immediately
LMU Joins Trump Administration, Billionaires’ Efforts to Shut Down Organized Labor
Los Angeles — Loyola Marymount University’s non-tenure track (NTT) faculty members condemn LMU’s illegal attempt to shut down the union that NTT instructors overwhelmingly voted to certify with SEIU Local 721 in summer 2024. The faculty members demand that LMU resume bargaining for a first union contract immediately.
“We are outraged by the university’s flouting of the law and claims that they will not recognize our NTT faculty union after we overwhelmingly voted to approve forming one with SEIU 721 in 2024 and after nearly 10 months of bargaining for a contract,” says Bryan Wisch, a rhetorical arts instructor at LMU and a 2015 graduate of the university. “I’m shocked that my alma mater and the university I’ve worked at for seven years would sink this low. LMU’s Board of Trustees have joined the Trump administration’s war on faculty and workers. They have put themselves in league with union busters like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and other billionaires who routinely break the law and want to stomp out the labor movement so they can make workers more precarious and more easily exploitable.”
Wisch added: “Our demand to Poon, the board, and the admin: Stop the union busting and get back to the bargaining table immediately. NTT faculty have lived without fair pay, job security, and dignified working conditions for too long. We want a fair contract now.”
In an email to LMU employees and students Friday, Paul S. Viviano, chairman of the LMU Board of Trustees and CEO of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, said the university would stop recognizing the NTT faculty members’ union and invoke its “constitutionally protected religious exemption” from the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which governs collective bargaining for private employers. In a video released online, LMU President Thomas Poon suggested the union was a “third party” that “may not share our values.”
“LMU NTT faculty are the union,” says Lauren Cole, a history lecturer. “When President Poon characterizes the union as a ‘third party,’ he implies that NTT faculty are outsiders. Stating that NTT faculty ‘may not share our values’ suggests that we are not committed to our students and LMU’s mission. Frankly, this is a disappointing and insulting characterization. The president is correct about one thing, however: NTT faculty do not value union busting and efforts to divide NTT faculty from our students, their families, staff, tenure-line faculty, and the larger LMU community.”
SEIU 721 will file an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge over LMU’s action, which is unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act.
“Let’s be clear: This action is illegal,” says SEIU 721 President and Executive Director David Green. “SEIU 721’s 100,000-plus members and union siblings who are NTT faculty members will fight this with everything we have. LMU messed with the wrong union. We say it here all the time: F*** around and find out. LMU is about to find out.”
The nearly 400 faculty members in the union serve in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts (BCLA), the College of Communication and Fine Arts (CFA), and the School of Film and Television (SFTV), and teach courses in various fields, including animation, communications, dance, English, ethnic studies, film, history, music, philosophy, photography, political science, screenwriting, theatre arts, urban studies, and many more.
For decades, as part of a nationwide trend, these faculty members have faced low pay, short-term contracts, job insecurity, and minimal opportunities to advance at the university. Many NTT faculty members work multiple jobs just to survive in the expensive Los Angeles region. The instructors formed their union with SEIU 721 to gain better job security, living wages, and the rights and protections that they deserve.
Other NTT faculty members weighed in on LMU’s announcement:
“Union busting is disgusting,” says Laurel Butler, a studio arts lecturer. “If President Poon and the board believe that they can get away with this, they have another thing coming. NTT faculty will not sit back quietly and take this. They started a fight and now they’re getting one.”
“President Poon talked about the university’s values in his statement, but what are those values?” says Jermaine McGhee, a dance lecturer. “Do those values include trying to smash unions and social justice movements on campus? The late Pope Francis stated: ‘There is no union without workers, and there are no free workers without a union.’ This illegal action completely contradicts LMU’s stated commitment to Catholic and Jesuit principles, social justice, equity, and human dignity. The NTT faculty union is the embodiment of all those values. We call on the university to rescind this bogus and illegal position and to get back to bargaining with NTT faculty in good faith.”
“LMU is not getting rid of our union,” says Maureen Gonzales, a dance lecturer. “We’ve worked too hard to build this union into what it is today: a vital force for justice and dignity on campus, and we will fight to maintain it and keep it strong. We condemn LMU for claiming that unionized faculty are threatening the future of the university and acting just like the Trump administration, or Amazon, or Elon Musk’s Tesla, and not the sacred place of learning, enlightenment, and justice that it claims to be.”
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The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 721 is one of California’s largest unions and represents non-tenure track (NTT) faculty at multiple Southern California colleges including Occidental College, Whittier College, Otis College of Art and Design, Laguna College, the University of Southern California, and the University of San Diego.
