NJ Unions’ College Staff Organizing Push Gets Court Boost (1)

Only a narrow band of New Jersey higher education administrators is prohibited from joining unions, a state appellate court ruled Friday.

The exception for public sector college and university membership extends only to those employees with independent policy control, the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division ruled in upholding the state’s Public Employment Relations Commission.

The rule that “a managerial executive must exercise independent authority meaningfully distinguishes between those positions that direct and formulate policy from those positions that merely implement policies created by higher-level supervisors,” Judge Thomas W. Sumners Jr. wrote.

The decision allows 28 employees across eleven different ...