{"id":219533,"date":"2026-05-04T18:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219533\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T18:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:11:14","slug":"st-johns-professors-file-charges-after-admin-ends-union-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219533\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Johns professors file charges after admin ends union recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"St.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSt. John’s University professors marched on May Day.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy SJU-AAUP\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Faculty<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFaculty at St. John’s University joined with members of other academic unions during the May Day march in lower Manhattan.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy SJU-AAUP\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

BY HARPER FREEMAN<\/p>\n

Faculty at St. John’s University have filed charges against the university administration with the state\u2019s labor board after management unilaterally revoked its recognition of the two unions that have been a presence on campus for over a half-century. The SJU chapters of the American Association of University Professors filed charges with the Public Employees Relations Board April 13, two months after university leadership alerted the union covering over 1,100 faculty members that it was no longer recognized.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The revocation of recognition, and the repudiation of the union\u2019s existing contract with the administration \u201chas impacted virtually every aspect of employment for bargaining unit faculty and resulted in the loss of myriad rights and protections that were established through over fifty years of collective bargaining,\u201d the AAUP wrote in its petition to PERB. Management has repeatedly reiterated, according to the union, that it doesn\u2019t consider faculty at the university to be represented by the AAUP at all. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The AAUP\u2019s charge against the university lists management\u2019s refusal to bargain, institution of unilateral changes, circumventing of the union as well as interference\u00a0with and surveillance of the union\u2019s legally protected activities, including rallies. The two sides haven\u2019t met for bargaining since Dec. 10, according to the charging document.<\/p>\n

That bargaining session took place during a period of increased hostility between the union and management that began when the union filed another PERB charge last October that was later resolved. The union\u2019s last contract expired in July, and bargaining was going smoothly, but slowly, until hostility increased late in the year, Sophie Bell, the SJU-AAUP acting president, said in an interview last week. <\/p>\n

Still, the union never expected management to unilaterally disregard the union.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was quite sudden, and quite unjustified,” Bell said. \u201cThe university has some pretty bad ideas on how to run the university, and they’re using this to advance those ideas.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s management alerted professors directly that the recognition of their union had been revoked. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis afternoon, we notified the Presidents of the American Association of University Professors and the Faculty Association that we are no longer recognizing the unions as representatives of the faculty,\u201d reads an email sent to professors by university president Brian J. Shanley and provost Simon G. M\u00f8ller. \u201cThis decision was not made lightly or rashly, and we are committed to providing clarity on what this means for you and for the future of our university.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In that same email, leadership said it would treat its most recent contract offer made to the union in bargaining sessions last year as the active contract, even though the union never agreed to the contract. The union, in its charge to PERB, argued this unilateral move was illegal. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause this matter is the subject of pending litigation, the University is unable to comment at this time,\u201d Brian Browne, a spokesperson for St. Johns said in a statement on the PERB charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Union members have responded to management\u2019s moves by holding\u00a0pickets and demonstrations, the perceived leaders of which have been targeted and threatened by the administration, Bell said. Professors have protested on campus and marched with hundreds of other faculty members from other academic unions on May Day in the hopes of spreading the word about the actions that St. John’s management took.<\/p>\n

The union leader is confident that PERB will hold management accountable, and that professors will prevail in its battle with the administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This state protects workers,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why\u00a0New York State recognized our union 56 years ago and it’s why we know we\u2019re going to win this fight.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. John’s University professors marched on May Day. Courtesy SJU-AAUP Faculty at St. John’s University joined with members…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-219533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}