Union Protest Hangs Over Marquette Inauguration

Milwaukee, WI – Tuesday morning, April 29, United Campus Workers of Wisconsin (UCW-WI) members and friends will gather on the Marquette University campus to protest the inauguration of the Catholic, Jesuit university’s new president Dr. Kimo Ah Yun.

Friday, April 25, journalist Kelly Meyerhofer at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote, “College inaugurations are pomp-filled affairs celebrating the institution’s new president. There’s a procession of important people, faculty in fancy robes and speeches invoking the university’s mission.” But, Meyerhofer wrote, “Some Marquette University faculty plan to protest the April 29 inauguration of the new president to call attention to the university’s anti-union stance.”

While the university holds a Catholic Mass and Installation Ceremony for its new president, students, faculty, staff, and alumni protest the inauguration to ask the university to uphold its Catholic values and university leadership to stop union busting.

Dr. Ah Yun and General Council Ralph Weber wrote, “To protect the direct relationship with our faculty that is critical to our Catholic, Jesuit intellectual life at Marquette, the university is invoking its legal right for a religious exemption from National Labor Relations Board oversight.” Meanwhile, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has written: “The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions. This is a specific application of the more general right to associate;” and “Catholic social teaching supports the right of workers to choose whether to organize, join a union, and bargain collectively.”

Other Catholic, Jesuit universities recognize and negotiate with faculty unions. Saint Louis University, Fordham University, Loyola University Chicago, Georgetown University, and Santa Clara University all collectively bargain with faculty unions. United Campus Workers of Wisconsin (UCW-WI) is calling on university leadership to live the university’s shared values, recognize the union and begin negotiating together in good faith.

Last fall, more than 65 percent of full-time, non-tenure-track faculty in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences signed union authorization cards expressing their desire to collectively bargain their contracts with the university. Union card signers identify unfair wages, short-term contracts, and increasing workloads as the primary concerns that motivated them to unionize.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.