🗞️ NLRB Clears Babson College Police Sergeants to Join Union Election

The National Labor Relations Board's Region 01 office ruled on Aug. 7 that Babson College did not meet its burden of showing that the six sergeants in its campus police department are statutory supervisors or managerial employees, rejecting the college's bid to keep them out of a union election, according to the NLRB case file.

The decision, signed by Acting Regional Director John D. Doyle Jr., directs a secret-ballot election on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, among 22 employees of the Babson College Police Department in Wellesley, Massachusetts, including police officers, community service officers, detectives, parking enforcement officers, community engagement officers and sergeants. Workers will decide whether to be represented by the American Coalition of Public Safety, a Boston-based union that already represents campus police personnel at several other Massachusetts colleges, according to a Law360 report and the union's website.

Babson had argued the sergeants should be excluded because they assign and direct other officers' work, discipline employees, help decide promotions and adjust grievances. Doyle found the college's evidence fell short under the NLRB's governing standard for supervisory status, which requires proof that a person exercises independent judgment, not just that they hold a title or occasionally give instructions. He wrote that scheduling is set by seniority-based bidding, that sergeants have not had authority to relieve officers from shifts since April 2025, and that disciplinary "counselings" issued by sergeants do not automatically lead to job-affecting consequences.

The ruling follows a similar pattern involving the same union. In 2023, the NLRB approved a union election for Northeastern University police sergeants and detectives after rejecting the university's parallel argument that they were supervisors, a decision reported at the time by the Huntington News.

Key Points

• The NLRB Region 01 office found Babson College did not prove its six police sergeants are supervisors or managerial employees under the National Labor Relations Act.
• The decision directs a secret-ballot election on Aug. 26, 2026, covering 22 employees, including the sergeants, in the Babson College Police Department.
• Babson's police officers, community service officers, detectives, parking enforcement officers and community engagement officers were already agreed to be part of the voting unit; only the sergeants' inclusion was contested.
• The American Coalition of Public Safety, the petitioning union, already represents campus police at other Massachusetts colleges, including Northeastern University, whose sergeants won a comparable election ruling in 2023.
• The petition was filed in November 2025, and the case proceeded through a hearing and post-hearing briefs before the Aug. 7, 2026, decision.

Sourcing

Primary Source Author: John D. Doyle Jr., Acting Regional Director, NLRB Region 01
Primary Source: National Labor Relations Board, Region 01, Decision and Direction of Election, Case 01-RC-374712
Primary Source Link: NLRB Case 01-RC-374712
Supplemental Links:

• Public Safety Officers At Mass. College Get OK For Union Vote, Law360
• American Coalition of Public Safety
• NLRB Grants NUPD Sergeants and Sergeant Detectives a Union Vote Despite University Opposition, Huntington News