January 21, 2000

Union Movement at Private Colleges Awakens After a 20-Year Slumber

Some faculty groups think they can win the legal battles to organize and bargain

By Courtney Leatherman

For 20 years, would-be union organizers at private colleges have been crippled by a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

It denied bargaining rights to the faculty at Yeshiva University, effectively squelching unionization at private colleges around the country.

But a recent decision by a labor official, granting bargaining rights to professors at Manhattan College, a Roman Catholic institution here, has some observers speculating about an end to the inertia.

"Yeshiva has