SDACT Blog

Rejecting union cost diocese dearly

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:52:00 +0000

The following editorial appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice, October 13, 2008:

Rejecting union cost diocese dearly

The decision by the bishop of the Diocese of Scranton to reject the teachers’ union may turn out to be an expensive proposition for the church.

Nearly $2 million in sick pay and severance pay is due the teachers who were laid off when the diocese rejected the union.

An arbitration decision handed down last month called for the diocese to immediately begin paying out $725,000 to 40 former teachers from the former Bishop Hoban High School.

This is one example, among many, of why the diocese should have continued to recognize the union.

Bishop cost diocese money when he opposed union

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:46:00 +0000

The following letter to the editor of the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice appeared October 10, 2008:

Bishop Cost Diocese Money When He Opposed Union

Editor:

Once again Bishop Martino and the Diocese of Scranton have proven that the Catholic lay teachers definitely need a union.

In the 1970s, before the union, teachers had no pension, salaries were in the $7,000 per year range and medical coverage required the teacher to pay many bills up front and file for repayment which took months. Older teachers could not afford to retire and many actually worked well into their seventies until they were just too sick to go on.

In the first few years negotiations got the teachers increased salaries, better medical coverage and a pension plan. At first this plan was not the best and it was clear that retirement for older teachers was still going to be hard to manage. In those years each school was run by its own board and in an effort to help the older teachers other plans were worked out at the various schools with the help of the individual school boards. Some called for severance pay, other plans like the one at Bishop Hoban called for payment for unused sick days to help retired teachers by keeping them on the group medical plan until they could get on Medicare.

If a teacher called in sick they were paid as usual, but also a sub had to be paid for that day. If teachers did not call in sick for a minor illness the school would save the sub’s pay and the teacher would get some of the money saved for the unused sick day applied to medical coverage upon retirement. This medical coverage would also encourage older teachers to take early retirement. Since older teachers have higher salaries; getting the older teachers to retire and replacing them with young teachers with lower salaries would again save the schools money. Many of the school boards saw the logic of how money would be saved in the long run and agreed to variations on this idea.

When the bishop decided to close all the schools and lay off the teachers, the union tried to tell him that the sick day clause would kick in and all the money owed teachers would become due at once rather than being spread out over years as intended. Also it meant the older teachers with the higher salaries would be hired for the new system and the lower paid young teachers would be laid off.

The bishop would not talk with the union and although the bishop’s representatives were informed this would cause the diocese to lose money rather than save money the bishop’s plan went ahead.

Soon the union found out why the diocese didn’t worry about this. The diocese simply told the union that the diocese just wouldn’t honor the old contracts and the teachers would not get the sick day money. The union of course filed a grievance for each school where the contract was being violated and soon the lawyers on both sides were the only ones getting money.

Some of the schools realized it would be cheaper to pay the teachers instead of paying the legal costs but many did not and the process has dragged on for more than a year. In every case that has been settled the teachers have been awarded the money due.

Recently the largest school, Bishop Hoban, where the most money was involved received the arbiter’s decision. Once again the teachers were judged to be in the right. If fact the arbiter essentially said the case was open and shut, the contract clearly said the money was owed and the diocese was ordered to pay. Several other schools are still unsettled and the diocese continues to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight against paying the teachers.

If Bishop Martino talked to the teachers and recognized the union none of this would have happened. A new union contract would have been worked out and the diocese would have saved thousands of dollars in legal fees. Older teachers would be retiring over the next few years and the plans of the old school boards would be saving tens of thousands of dollars instead. Before all the cases are settled perhaps as much as a million dollars in payments and legal fees will be paid by the diocese. But, there is only one bishop of Scranton and he makes the decisions. By the way, the annual diocesan appeal will be starting soon and your money is needed to pay future legal fees.

Eugene Gowisnok
Swoyersville

The High Cost of Union Busting

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:41:00 +0000

In November of 2006, the Diocese of Scranton announced its plans to restructure its schools. That decision simultaneously brought closure to the old schools and the bargaining relationship that several of those schools had with their in-house unions, all of which were under the umbrella of the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers (SDACT). The closures also triggered contractual provisions in some schools requiring that the employers pay teachers money owed them for accumulated sick leave and severance pay when their employment with those schools was terminated. Knowing this to be the case, the SDACT asked the employers how they intended to make good on their contractual promises, or how a workable compromise could be arranged through collective bargaining. When no responses to the union’s requests were received, grievances were filed for breach of contract.

Those grievances progressed through their contract’s grievance procedure, eventually reaching the final step of the process – binding arbitration. At three schools (formerly Bishop O’Hara, Seton Catholic and St. Nicholas-St. Mary’s) the employers agreed to pay their teachers this earned benefit promised by their contracts before any hearings took place.

Since May of 2008, separate arbitration hearings have taken place between the parties at the former Bishop Hoban, Bishop Hafey, Bishop Neumann, Bishop O’Reilly Junior High and Bishop O’Reilly Senior High. Dates for hearings are yet to be fixed for St. Vincent’s, Wyoming Area Catholic, St. Aloysius, St. Jude’s and St. Paul’s.

On September 3, 2008, the first arbitration award was handed down, that affecting Bishop Hoban. SDACT and the teachers were the winners in the dispute. The arbitrator’s award called for the employer to immediately begin paying out $725,000 to Hoban’s 40 teachers. Moreover, there is every expectation that when the dust finally settles and all of the arbitrators have ruled, the Diocese may owe nearly two million dollars ($2,000,000) to the teachers in the 12 affected schools.

This immediate payout (and the enormous associated legal costs) will no doubt have an unfavorable impact on the Diocese and its schools. It is just one more foreseeable and avoidable consequence of a reckless policy of union-busting initiated by Bishop Martino and his advisors. When word of such financial malfeasance reaches parishioners, no doubt, as it has done so often before, the Diocese will soon attempt to spin this outcome to make it a demonstration of the union’s “greed” or the dangerous effect a union would have on the schools. This type of spin would, of course, be far from the truth.

The fact is that what was designed as a small benefit per individual employee, if properly applied under a union contract in the new school system, would have had a nearly negligible financial impact as individual teachers left the employment of the Diocese through retirement or attrition. (It must be noted, that such provisions were cooperatively designed to benefit both parties, and took their shape in negotiation as much from employer input as from the union.)

To illustrate the point, all one needs to do is to see how these provisions worked under the old union contracts in place before 2007. That is, each year, on average, a small number of teachers would retire. Those teachers were entitled to cash in the sick days that they had banked or receive severance pay – a benefit designed to augment their insufficient 401K retirement plans, and to help defray the cost of medical insurance in retirement. Viewed as an individual budget item at each school, the amount was very small and easily absorbed, as new teachers hired to replace retiring veterans came onboard at much lower salaries. In most cases, the employer would have come out ahead in this transaction. However, by its actions, the Diocese upset this agreed-upon balance by now making an expense that would have been allocated in dribs and drabs over a number of years immediately due and owing.

This situation did not have to be. This immediate and extremely large payment is a direct cost of union-busting. Bishop Martino and his advisors should be held accountable by the parishioners of the Scranton Diocese for such financial recklessness. Had the Diocese been willing to honor the Church’s own teachings by recognizing the union chosen by its own employees, the parties could have met to negotiate a new contract that would have defrayed these costs and allowed for a result in the best interests of the employer, teachers and, most importantly, the students and parents served by the schools.

The Diocese will no doubt claim that it was willing to carry over teachers’ sick days in question to the newly established schools. Never, however, were Diocesan officials willing to abide by the original contractual conditions governing payment for the sick days teachers had already earned over the course of decades of service. Nor, of course, were they willing to place language preserving the right to these earned benefits in a legally-enforceable union contract.

So, when the Diocese inevitably smears SDACT and all unions as greedy and self-serving, one only has to ask these questions: Was it SDACT or the Diocese that sought to provide a modest retirement benefit that corresponded directly to a teacher’s years of dedicated service; one which as contractually provided, would have been fiscally responsible? Was it SDACT or the Diocese, that, in a reprehensible attempt to subvert Church social justice teachings, placed an unnecessary financial burden on the community of faithful Catholics? The answers, sadly, are very clear.

The idea that what is done in the Church is ministry, and what is done in the secular world is work is just false

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:08:00 +0000

In the most recent edition of the Catholic Light, there appeared an article critical of the effort to pass HB 2626. Here is an excerpt from that article:

"Calling them the 'bishop’s collaborators' and 'co-ministers', Nicholas Cafardi underscored how teachers in Catholic schools are not simply employees but “office holders of the Church.” Cafardi, testified House Bill 2626, will “impede if not destroy this co-ministry” of the Catholic Church. The Pennsylvania House Labor Relations Committee hosted a hearing Sept. 18 in Wilkes-Barre on the bill. '(The legislation) would require the diocesan bishop to use the mechanisms of the state to deal with what is not, at base, a secular but rather a religious and spiritual relationship,' he stated. 'Should the proposed legislation be adopted, the church-state conflicts that it would propagate are enormous.' House Bill 2626 would amend the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act to specifically include lay teachers and other employees of religious employers such as Catholic schools."

Yet, Rev. Sinclair Oubre, a noted Canon Lawyer and Director of the Catholic Labor Network, provided testimony at the August 18th hearing on the bill which claimed that the above position taken by the Scranton Diocese was disingenuous. Here's what Father Oubre had to say:

Ministry vs. Work: A False Distinction

"In an effort to maintain control, or to maintain a union-free environment in Catholic institutions, theories are put forth that try to make the false distinction that what is done in a church institution is ministry, and that which is done in the secular world is work. That distinction has no basis in Catholic social teaching, or in the many actual instances where workers in Catholic schools, hospitals and even Vatican departments are represented by unions, and participate in collective bargaining.

When both the law and the teaching of the Church are examined, ministry and work are never divided. The idea that what is done in the Church is ministry, and what is done in the secular world is work is just false.

Since ministry is the means by which many in the Catholic Church make their living, church documents and canon law both recognize that care must be taken to see that proper remuneration and social security is extended to those who carry out ministry, and especially those in the laity.

Canon 1287 2° directs administrators of goods to:

“Pay a just and decent wage to employees so that they are able to provide fittingly for their own needs and those of their dependents.”

In the United States bishops’ pastoral letter Economic Justice for All, the responsibility of providing an adequate living is laid out.

“351. We‑bishops commit ourselves to the principle that those who serve the Church‑laity, clergy, and religious‑should receive a sufficient livelihood and the social benefits provided by responsible employers in our nation.”

This commitment to meet a minimum level of dignity for church employees manifests itself by the Church allowing itself to be included into a number of federal and state laws. These would include the federal minimum wage, FICA, American With Disability Act, federal wage and hour laws and many state and local building codes.

The theory that some Catholic teachings should be enshrined in civil law, while others should not, seems to lack any logic. Since those who minister in the Church, work for the Church, and those who work in the Church do ministry, any civil law that enshrines the Catholic Church’s teaching, and is not contrary to that teaching, is an assistance to the Church in carrying out its ministry.

Including the right to organize and collective bargaining in the Pennsylvania civil law is no different than covering church employees through minimum wage and wage and hour laws. In both cases, the civil law is codifying what the Church already teaches, promotes, and should be binding on itself."

Counter-signs of an effective bishop

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:39:00 +0000

The following excerpt is from an article in the journal of the National Institute for the Renewal of the Priesthood, September, 2008:

http://www.jknirp.com/cathmin.htm

Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco keynoted the conference on Wednesday, which brings together rectors, pastors, and other leaders from cathedrals around the country. He based his reflections on his episcopal motto, drawn from the words of Jesus in Mark 10: “To serve and to give.”

Niederauer joked that he had managed to go 13 years as a bishop without ever basing a talk on his motto -- he was proud, he said, “of that kind of humility.” Yet he always knew the day would come when a group asked him to speak on their area of expertise, and he would fall back on the motto in the absence of any other way to get into the subject. “You are that group, and this is that talk,” he deadpanned.

Niederauer argued that cathedrals should be models of “servant leadership,” rooted in service and humility rather than self-aggrandizement and power. He said the qualities of a good cathedral are the same as those of a good bishop, which he listed as “courage, fidelity, strength, zeal, pastoral outreach, accessibility, defending the rights and welfare of all the faithful, humility, patience in the face of adversity, and concern for the entire community of God’s children.”

The “counter-signs” of an effective bishop or cathedral, on the other hand, according to Niederauer, include becoming “isolated, arrogant, inaccessible, all take and no give, feared and dreaded rather than loved and respected.”

Some Thoughts on the HB 2626 Hearing

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:50:00 +0000

During the recent House hearing on HB 2626 at Wilkes University, the truth shone forth. This, despite the arcane and convoluted arguments to the contrary on the part of a canon lawyer, a law school dean, counsel for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and assorted Scranton Diocese officials who sought to explain how many bishops could dance on the head of a pin.

The legislators conducting the hearing repeatedly asked those gentlemen clear and logical questions concerning Bishop Martino’s unwillingness to abide by Church teachings, as well as the disparity between Martino and his fellow Pennsylvania bishops with regard to Catholic school unionization. The Church’s minions responded to each and every query with the smug certainty that their legalistic, formulaic and very elastic interpretation of Church law would prove convincing beyond refutation.

When unionized teachers from other Pennsylvania dioceses testified in simple, straightforward fashion about their appreciation of and loyalty toward their unions, the legislators understood the difference between what the Church preaches and how it can stand Church teaching on its head whenever and wherever an individual bishop deems it opportune. The Church, the minions held, is indeed universal in its teachings, but, they maintained in the next breath, it is not monolithic when it comes to the manner in which individual bishops can choose to implement said teachings.

Thus, one hundred years’ of encyclicals, pastorals and bishops’ scholarly letters can be tossed aside by an inaccessible bishop with the power of a 14th century baron. Who has the power to tell the bishop that he is wrong? No one, it seems, except the SDACT and the House, Senate and Governor of the State of Pennsylvania. Thankfully, Medieval mindsets do not play well in 21st century America when the basic rights and freedoms of individuals are at issue.

Representative Thomas Blackwell (West Philadelphia) separated the chaff from the grain very nicely when he likened the plight of Catholic school teachers to African-Americans during the Civil Rights Era. When officialdom hides behind a power structure and attempts to deny equality to a category of citizens for self-serving and unjust reasons, legislative action is needed to redress an ugly, un-American and un-Christian stance.

When it became apparent to all those in attendance at the hearing that the legislators weren’t buying what the Church was selling, speakers in support of the Bishop’s position went negative. The legislators were told, for example, that if allowed to unionize and negotiate contracts, teachers would seek a clause which would allow them to refuse to accompany students to Mass during the school day. The implication here suggests that teachers would indeed engage in such a tactic.

One cannot hear such despicable accusations without thinking of totalitarian governments' tactic of the “big lie” – a lie so preposterous and contrary to fact but repeated so often that it begins to gain traction among those without recourse to the facts, or those predisposed to believe it in the first place. The response of the crowd, many of whom were Catholic teachers and parents, was a predictable and loud indignation.

When you think about it though, the day belonged to the teachers. Such ad hominem attacks not only reflected the desperation of Church officials, but they also served to solidify the opinion of the legislators who see this as a simple issue of fairness and justice for their constituents. With our continued support of the SDACT and our elected state legislators, we will prevail. Justice is within our grasp. Let us not falter now.

Down a coal mine in search of high ground?

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:50:00 +0000

The following editorial appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, September 23, 2008:

Down a coal mine in search of high ground?

The public hearing on House Bill 2626 held last Thursday had a lot more spark than the one in Harrisburg Aug 18 ( hmmm ... two hearings on the 18th of two months ...does the Labor Relations Committee have a thing for the number?). But that was surely because supporters of the bill, which would potentially make it easier for teachers in Catholic schools to unionize, had a clear home field advantage. The latest hearing was held at Wilkes University, and right around 3 o'clock the room started filling with those who favored the bill - teachers, their families and parents.

Some favorite lines that I didn't' get into the newspaper story:

"All Catholic teachers in Pennsylvania are one bishop away from what happened in the Diocese of Scranton." Rita Schwartz, head of both the Philadelphia and national associations that represent Catholic teacher unions. She was, of course, referring to Bishop Joseph Martino's decision to reject unionization after schools were restructured, which in turn led to the lengthy campaign to reverse that decision, which led to Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski's decision to introduce House Bill 2626.

"The record is, essentially, Lions 8, Christians 0." Schwartz giving her slant on how teacher grievances actually shake out in Catholic schools, because they are filed with boards and groups heavily composed of Church officials or lay people appointed by Church officials. The bill would put such grievances in the purview of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.

"We're not coal barons." Robert O'Hara, executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the public relations arm of bishops statewide. O'Hara was alluding to frequent (accurate) claims by union supporters that the Catholic Church has long been an advocate of worker rights, including unionization. The Church has countered that the right is not absolute, and that treatment of employees today has no comparison to treatment of many employees, including coal miners, decades ago that prompted unionization then.

"Are you the Christians or the Lions?" Pashinski (I think, I can't find a credit in my notes) joking with O'Hara. I was amused, but it It didn't seem to go over too well.

"It appears to me you are cherry picking what state laws you will adhere to." Rep. Frank Andrews Shimkus, to O'Hara and two other representatives of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference who testified. Shimkus noted that Catholic schools accept regulations requiring public school districts to provide bus transportation to private school students, and other aid given to private schools like school nursing, subsidized lunches, and special education services. O'Hara and his companions countered that those services were to students, not schools.

"Is there a Vatican union? ... "There is a Vatican union." Pashinski making one of his stronger points during a somewhat testy debate with O'Hara and his fellow testifiers, who countered that the Church is not monolithic and circumstances vary. They also argued that "Italy is heavily unionize." My opinion? They lost on this point, due to lack of preparation.

'My pastor would probably say, 'stay out of this.' But I work for the people of Pennsylvania." Rep. Thomas Blackwell, delivering one of many lines that won applause. He said multiple times that he felt the government should, in general, stay out of religious issues, but added that this case seemed to call for state action.

"The leader of our diocese has to come out of that ivory tower and say 'How are we going to deal with this?' " Rep. Ken Smith, Dunmore, delivering another applause-evoking line that reflected what has been by far the biggest complaint by many in this issue, that Bishop Joseph Martino has seemed aloof and remote in the whole debate.

"My wife and my family can't sit back and wonder if I'll have certain rights, certain guarantees, or even a career." Teacher and union activist William Smedley, after stressing he initially rejected the idea of unionizing Catholic teachers as inconceivable.

"I understand the new retirement policy is you retire at 80 and they make you a priest." Smedley again, who said he expects to "be buried" at Holy Redeemer High School, where he insists he loves working.

"When there is a mine disaster you get mine safety legislation. We have had a disaster here." Attorney Martin Milz, son of local union president Michael Milz, testifying of the success of similar legislation in other states.

"I'm a newly appointed superintendent, so please have mercy on me." Mary Rochford, Archdiocese of Philadelphia Superintendent of Catholic Schools, who gave (as far as I'm concerned) effective counter-arguments against issues raised by Schwartz.

"If someone doesn't come to us, we can't know what we don't know." Rochford, responding to claims that some teachers in the archdiocese are fearful of speaking out for unionization or regarding other employment issues.

"I will be brief so you can go out and say you heard from one attorney who spoke less than two minutes." Attorney James Katz, who went on to offer some strong testimony in support of the Constitutionality of HB2626, and success of similar laws elsewhere. Katz, alas, did not fulfill his promise, speaking for something closer to 10 minutes.

My bottom line take?

If -- as I argued in an Aug. 20 blog -- the diocese had finally gained some claim to a higher moral ground during the first hearing (thanks to non-diocesan speakers who made effective arguments the diocese itself has failed to put forth) that high ground may well have been lost last week, as the union put together a more thorough and, from my seat, effective presentation of teachers, union supporters and attorneys who repeatedly countered most arguments by the opposition with strong points that were never adequately rebutted.

Having the home court advantage may have helped, but having done their homework helped more.

Stay tuned, the fight isn't over yet.

Tuesday September 23, 2008 12:52 PM
Posted by Mark Guydish mguydish@timesleader.com

Two sides debate bill to help Catholic teachers unionize

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:40:00 +0000

The following article appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, September 19, 2008:

Wilkes University Thursday.

“If you don’t mind, Mr. Chairman,” Blackwell said to Rep. Frank Andrew Shimkus, D-Scranton., “I’ll be brief, however long it takes.” Blackwell had already spent a good bit of time questioning representatives from the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. - the public relations arm of a group representing diocese throughout the state – regarding testimony on House Bill 2626, which would amend the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act to cover Catholic school teachers.

A Baptist minister and former union activist, Blackwell recounted his times bargaining for contracts. “I told my attorney I’m going to negotiate my contract, you just keep me legal,” he said. “I represent my members, you represent keeping me out of jail.”

Much of the testimony centered on the fear among church leaders that, if the bill becomes law, more private school teachers will unionize and, thanks to their new right to file grievances and complaints with the state Labor Relations Board, contract talks could become contentious.

Responding to arguments that the state should not step into a matter better left for Catholics to resolve themselves, Blackwell, who is black, said “There was a time when this country had people who were not allowed to vote. The state had to step in.

“I believe there is a middle ground, here,” he said. “There are going to be some good situations and some bad situations. I’m looking for a fair situation.”

But he drew his biggest audience response when Pennsylvania Catholic Conference Executive Director Robert O’Hara noted that decisions regarding the Catholic schools had to ultimately be made by the bishop. “That’s my main problem,” Blackwell said, evoking applause. “I don’t believe one man or woman should be able to say we’re not going to have this or we’re going to have that, without some kind of dialogue.”

Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, introduced the bill in June in response to the ongoing effort to unionize local Catholic schools. The Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers had bargained in some schools before the diocese restructured the system last year. The diocese has since refused requests by the Association to represent teachers under the new system, creating an “Employee Relations Program” instead.

This was the second public hearing on the bill, and much like the first one in Harrisburg Aug. 18, the committee had set aside three hours but was swamped with 23 people hoping to testify and nearly 100 pages of written testimony. Convened shortly after 1 p.m., the hearing stretched to 5:25 p.m.

Wilkes University Business Professor Anthony Liuzzo began with an opinion-free recounting of labor laws, and how courts have ruled that Catholic school teachers are not covered by them, which is why the bill was introduced.

The pro-bill side brought representatives from five Pennsylvania dioceses, each testifying as to the impact of unions in their schools – stressing they had never interfered with religious issues, a major concern voiced by opponents. Federation of Pittsburgh Diocesan Teachers Vice President George Rudolph recounted how Bernadette Lito taught for 42 years and retired with pension of less than $100 a month “and a three-day, all-expense paid trip to Williamsburg, Va.

“The ‘Lito factor’ was one of the early rallying cries” when the union was voted on that year.

Lawyers from each side swapped claims and counterclaims regarding the success and challenges of similar laws in other states. Attorney Phillip Murren, council for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, said courts have rejected efforts to consider whether or not employment decisions were made using religion as a “pretext.” Pahinski’s bill expressly allows the Labor Relations Board to consider whether religion was used as a pretext.

But Attorney Martin Milz, the son of Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers President Michael Milz, said his research showed that religion had never been an issue in any case brought to the employee relations board in New York .

Michael Young, a parent of students at St. Nicholas/St. Mary’s School in Wilkes-Barre chastised the bill’s proponents. “I think it is reprehensible and beyond belief that the Catholic laity would not align themselves with the leaders of the Catholic Church,” he said.

As the clock neared three the crowd grew substantially, and it became quickly obvious they were teachers and parents, particularly when Attorney John Dean – the solicitor for Crestwood School District with two children attending St. Jude’s school in Mountain Top – told the committee he had years of experience negotiating teacher contract and warned that, if the bill is passed, Catholic teachers would be insisting every minor service – even going to Mass with the students – be a contract issue.

The crowd booed and one man shouted out “That’s a lie!”

Diocese of Scranton Superintendent of Schools Joseph Casciano gave a litany of teacher volunteer activities that the Diocese contends unionized teachers have balked, and grumbles rose from the crowd, with one man insisting “that’s not true.”

Several Officials from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia disputed claims made earlier by their Union President Rita Schwartz that non-unionized teachers work in fear of losing their jobs if they try to join the union. “This bill would not bring a better working environment because we have that already,” Superintendent of Schools Mary Rochford said.

In the end, the volume of testimony convinced Pashinski not to try to get the bill out of committee before the legislative session ends next week. He said he wants to have attorneys review it and see if changes can be made to address some of the concerns of opponents.

Related Document9-18-08 hearing testimony 1

Union flap echoes statewide

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:40:00 +0000

The following article appeared in the Scranton Times Tribune, September 19, 2008:

WILKES-BARRE — What started as the Diocese of Scranton not recognizing its teachers union has become a heated debate on the collective bargaining rights of teachers in religious schools across Pennsylvania.

More than 20 teachers, scholars, lawyers and officials from dioceses across the state presented evidence Thursday at a House Labor Relations Committee hearing for a bill that would give lay teachers the option of forming unions that religious schools must recognize.

“Catholic teachers in Pennsylvania are one bishop away from what has happened in the Diocese of Scranton,” Rita C. Schwartz, president of the National Association of Catholic School Teachers, told the lawmakers during the four-hour hearing at Wilkes University.

While the teachers say the bill would bring equality and fairness to their labor rights, some religious leaders say the bill is overreaching and unconstitutional.

“We’re the Catholic church here, we’re not coal barons,” said Dr. Robert J. O’Hara, executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. “State government should not meddle in religious doctrine.

”In January, the diocese announced it would not recognize the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers, and instead has implemented an employee relations program. Since then, diocesan teachers have campaigned against the decision, holding rallies and protests, and are now on the front lines in pushing for the bill.

House Bill 2626, introduced by Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-121, would allow lay teachers and employees at religious schools to decide by a majority vote if they want to be represented by a union. Unions in religious schools could then bring grievances to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board — which currently has no jurisdiction over workplace issues in parochial schools.

Many of the speakers expressed concern the labor board could define or interpret a religious school’s doctrine or undermine a religious school’s educational goals. Others said unions could have dangerous financial implications for religious schools.

Mr. Pashinski said the labor relations committee will now review all of the testimony, and some changes may be made to the bill to specifically define the secular conditions, such as wages and working conditions, in which the board could make rulings.

At times the hearing got heated, as Diocese of Scranton officials spoke about what a union could mean for Catholic education.

When John Dean, a lawyer for the diocese, told the lawmakers teachers would negotiate in their contracts whether they had to attend Mass with their students, union President Michael Milz shouted, “That’s a lie!”

Many other times, the more than two dozen teachers in attendance, who came to the hearing after school dismissed, shook their heads and sighed.

Mr. Pashinski, along with Rep. Frank Shimkus, D-113, said there are enough votes for the bill to make it out of the labor committee. Both also said they expect the house to pass the bill, which would then go to the senate for approval.

“It’s something that has a great deal of interest and is being talked about every day,” Mr. Pashinski said of the bill.

Second hearing on HB 2626 is scheduled

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:24:00 +0000

(Above: SDACT Office in Wilkes-Barre. Displayed sign says:

SUPPORT HB 2626

LAY TEACHERS

DESERVE EQUALITY

UNDER THE LAW

A second hearing on House Bill 2626 will be held before the Pennsylvania House of Representative's Labor Relations Committee. The meeting is open to the public. We urge all SDACT members and those who support our efforts to attend the hearing. A demonstration in favor of the Bill will be held following the conclusion of the hearing outside the hearing site.

PA LABOR RELATIONS COMMITTEE HEARING ON HB 2626

DATE: Thursday, September 18, 2008

PLACE: Wilkes University, in the Henry Student Center-Building 27, at 84 West South Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Time: 1:00 PM

TO READ THE OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF THE TESTIMONY PRESENTED AT THE FIRST HEARING ON HB 2626 WHICH WAS HELD IN HARRISBURG ON AUGUST 18, 2008, CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK: HB%202626%20Harrisburg%20Hearing%20Transcript.pdf

UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS ENDORSE SDACT CAMPAIGN

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:12:00 +0000

At its international convention on August 22, 2008, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) approved the following resolution:

RESOLUTION NO.36

SCRANTON DIOCESE ASSOCIATION
OF CATHOLIC TEACHERS (SDACT)
EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT

WHEREAS, The Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers (SDACT) has represented the teachers within the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, for over 30 years; and

WHEREAS, In January 2008, Bishop Joseph Martino of the Diocese of Scranton, after restructuring their school system, has denied recognition to SDACT as the collective bargaining unit of teachers within the Diocese; and

WHEREAS, The Scranton Diocese of Association of Catholic Teachers has been in an ongoing struggle to regain recognition before the Diocese; and

WHEREAS, SDACT is not protected under the current language of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act; and

WHEREAS, On June 11,2008, Pennsylvania State House Bill 2626 was introduced before the State House of Representatives to amend the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act to specifically include lay teachers and employees working in religious schools; and

WHEREAS, The freedom to form or join a union is internationally recognized by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a fundamental human right; and

WHEREAS, The free choice to join with others and bargain for better wages and benefits is essential to economic opportunity and good living standards; and

WHEREAS, Unions benefit communities by strengthening living standards, promoting equal treatment and enhancing civic participation; and

WHEREAS, Workers across the nation are routinely denied the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life; and

WHEREAS, The Employee Free Choice Act has been introduced in the United States Congress in order to restore workers’ freedom to join a union; and.

WHEREAS, The Employee Free Choice Act will safeguard workers’ ability to make their own decisions, provide for first contract mediation and arbitration, and establish meaningful penalties when employers violate workers’ rights; and.

WHEREAS, The struggle of the members of the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers reaffirms the importance of the Employee Free Choice Act as a means to protect workers and their right to join a union.

THEREFORE BE IT

RESOLVED: That the United Food and Commercial Workers Union supports the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers and workers throughout the world in their efforts to join a union and have a voice at their workplace; and be it further

RESOLVED; That we urge the United States Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to protect and preserve for America’s workers their freedom to choose for themselves whether or not to form a union.

Submitted by:

Local No. 1776
Plymouth Meeting, PA
Resolutions and Proposals to Amend the International Constitution

Organizing Principles

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:24:00 +0000

The following article, writen by Amata Miller, IHM, appeared in the September 8, 2008 edition of America magazine.

ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES - WHY UNIONS STILL MATTER

In his new book, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker, Steven Greenhouse documents the current plight of our nation’s working people, especially those at the bottom. He cites their low and stagnant wages at a time when executive compensation soars, their decreasing health care insurance and pensions, their increasing job insecurity and their experience of weak public support for their rights as workers. Specifically, Greenhouse describes the struggles of security guards, janitors, hospital and hotel workers—those who perform service jobs that are poorly-paid but essential and who experience broad opposition when they try to join a union.

What’s wrong?Although the classic case for capitalism assumes a free marketplace, equal bargaining power on both the supply and the demand sides and freedom from an outcome- controlling power on either side, its assumptions do notneatly fit reality especially for workers with little education and few well-compensated skills. In labor markets without unions, eath worker is left to face, alone, an employer who has significant control over his or her employment, compensation package and working conditions. In an empl0yees’ market, where the supply of jobs is greater than the number of workers, an employee could quit one job to look for another, bettter job. That is how free market competition is supposed to work, with the various employers considered to be equals. Or one could find oneself in an employers’ market, where jobs are few and the ~number of workers is large. Unions, with their emergency finds, demands for standards and experts in collective bargaining, work on behalf of laborers in all types of markets.

The economist John Kenneth Gaibraith developed a theory that explains in part how labor unions help to equalize the marketplace. While studying the tendency of an economy dominated by large corporations to suppress competition, he realized that the largest would dominate unless there were some “countervailing power,” as he called it, to restrain them. (Galbraith reasserted this thesis, first articulated in 1952 in American Capitalism: The Theory of Countervailing Power, in his introduction to a 1993 edition of the book). By then Gaibraith recognized that globalization has diminished the role of exploitative market power in much the same way that supermarkets restrain the power of huge food companies. They can do this because the supermarket chains are more nearly equals in bargaining with the food suppliers. Likewise workers are helpless unless they affiliate with larger unions. Galbraite wrote, “The trade union remains an equalizing force in the labor markets.” The union’s raison d’être is to serve as a “countervailing power.”

For more than a century the Catholic Church also has recognized a positive role for labor unions. The basic principles of Catholic social teaching (respect for human digthty the tight of individuals to participate in decisions that affect them, solidarity in human community, co-responsibilityfor the common good, subsidiarity and the dignity of all workers) form a moral basis for the right of workers to organize, which is rooted in the social nature of human beings and their responsibility to participate in shaping the common good. The thurch regards unions~ as an indispensable element: of social life today.

Still, many Catholic institutions, like hospitals, struggle to balance the needs of their
workers with the institution’s service to the poor. Labor advocates are baffled whenever workers seeking unionization within Catholic institutions are actively discouraged or penalized by their employers.

Perceptions and Obstacles

if unions are vital to healthy capitaiism and if Catholic teaching supports them, why are unions held in such low regard by the public? The Economic Policy Institute, in its publication The State of Working America: 2006/2007, notes a decline in the bargaining power of unions as their membership levels have fallen. The institute links the erosion of union influence to difficult trade pressures, a national shift from manufacturing to service industries, ongoing technological change, employer militancy and changes in the way labor law is being implemented currently in the United States.

Yet theft data also show measurable benefits for workers in unions, especially for those at the bottom of the wage scale. For example, the 2005 differential between union and nonunion wages for comparable workers was 14.7 percent overall—8.4 percent for men and 10.5 percent for women. For African-Americans the gain was 20.3 percent, for Hispanics 21.9 percent and for whites 13.1 percent, indicating that unions help dose wage gaps. Minority women in unions have roughly twice the gains of their white counterparts. Union workers are also more likely to have health insurance benefits and to have better covenge than nonunion workers. The percentage of union workers with pensions is almost twice that of nonunion workers, and those in unions report more nine off.

Nonunion employees profit indirectly from the work of unions when employers, for example, improve the compensation and benefits they offer in order to avoid unionization. Also, unions have pioneered standards and practices that have become industry-wide norms, and unions continue to be innovative in the areas of childcare, work-nine flexibility and sick leave.
The reverse is also true. When labor’s public influence is weakened, the ill effects can be felt throughout society in the form of economic hardship, job insecurity, the fraying of the social safety net and the destruction of the American dream for thousands of workers. And as the income gap grows between society’s most highly paid workers and the vast majority of workers, some leaders are calling attention to the skewed power balance such inequality brings to die workplace.

Tilted Against Unions

In What Workers Want (1999), Richard B. Freeman, a labor economist, and Joel Rogers, a politicaL scienitist and lawyer, studied a national sample of 3,048 adults working in U.S. private companies or nonprofit corpontions of more than 25 employees. Their data indicated that 44 percent of private-sector American workers wanted to be represented by a union, while only 14 percent of the sample were union members. The workers who wanted a union but had not joined one were disproportionately black, reported poor labor-management relations, and had attitudes toward independence of workplace organizations like those of union members. One can conclude that workers do want a voice and representation, and that both employers and society
would benefit from helping them get it.

How does the workplace become tilted against unionization today? It may begin with an employer, but current law also contributes. So-called “employer miiitancy” is one cause of the decline of union bargaining power, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Freeman and Rogers write: “The law de facto reduces the chances of successful worker organization.” In From Blackjacks to Brieftases (2003), Robert M. Smith documents the 150-year-old struggle for labor rights in the United States. Describing the rise of business power over labor after a period of cooperation during World War IL, Smith notes that new union-busting agencies with labor relations specialists have affected both national labor law and the climate for workers considering unionization. Such agencies operated within a legal framework set up by the Wagner
Act, proliferated and have effectively served employers who seek to avoid unionization.

The past excesses of some unions also. played a role. During the late 1 950s Congres found not only unscrupulous tactics by some labor unions but also criminal infiltration of prominent unions. By die late 1970s, the public mood had soured on unions, and efforts to suppress or exclude thiem aroused less concern. Political and social factors, especially Ronald Reagan’s breaking of the air traffic controllers’ union, fueled a pro-business environment.

According to a report issued by the N.L.RB., in 1980, the unions began to see that the unionization processes conducted under the supervison of the N.L.R.B., which had been set up by the Wagner Act to fairly regulate these processes, were leading to outcomes that were unfavorable to the unions. In 1970 organized labor had won 57 percent of representative elections; by 1980 themnumber had dropped to 46 percent Organized labor won only 27 percent of de-certification elections. Because of federal appointments to the N.L.R.B. that favored business,the same skewed pattern has continued, making unions less willing to accept the process as fair. In N.L.R.B. certification processes, employers frequently seek to defeat unionization efforts by using delaying tactics and challenging whom unions can represent Penalties for illegally pressuring employees have been minimal. And courts at various levels, even up to the U.S. Supreme Court, decided to allow replacement workers during a strike and to expand the exclusion of supervisory workers from bargaining units. Labor sees the current operating framework as unfair.

Current Alternatives

Increasingly unions have used “card-check” elections (workers simplycheck a card to say they do or do not want to belong to the union) combined with neutrality agreements during the decision-making period. Both labor and management agree not to harm the reputation of the opposite side. Data show that with this new strategy, unions do twice as well in organizing firms with 500 or more employees as they did in the past and are more apt to increase organizing efforts. The method demonstrates that nonadversarial unionization efforts are still possible and effective.

Labor arbitration is a comnion way of achieving workplace justice in nonunion situations. In their 2004 study, Workplace Justice Without Unions, Hoyt Wheeler and his coauthors examined the practice extensively. They concluded that from the standpoint of employees, arbitration offers the best chance for workplace justice, but that “justice is least likely to weep when there is a union.”

Economic globalization requires an international voice for labor. International labor organization standards call for a social partnership, and unions are a major institution through which workers can participate in making decisions about employment. The United Steelworkers union just announced a merger with the largest labor organization in Britain and Ireland, calling the three million members of the new organization to global union activism to challenge antiworker injustices.

The vision of innovative employer-employee partnerships has been consistently supported by Catholic social teaching, which insists on co-responsibility for the common good, the dignity of work and the rights and responsibilities of social participation. Development of economic community is also essential to a sustainable fixture, as laid out by Herman F. Daly and John B. Cobb Jr. in For the Common Good (1989). The economic success of workplaces, unionized or not, that focus on employee well-being and loyalty demonstrates the value of structuring relationships in which workers and employers can use their best gifts and exhibit “power with” instead of “power over.”

For the economy to further the freedom and well-being of workers, as well as of employers and shareholders, the right of workers to participate in decisions that affect their lives must be guaranteed and a social contract insuring cooperative working relationships re-established. Enabling workers, especially those in low-wage occupations, to help themselves through freely chosen unions is in accord with Catholic moral principles and with American traditions of individual economic freedom and democracy Both an improvement in the public mood toward worker rights and a reform of labor law are overdue. Justice in the workplace is not a narrow interest, but part of the ongoing struggle for human tights and democracy. The current economic climate provides a teachable moment (as well as a challenge) for leaders of Catholic institutions who wish to promote justice for workers and better relationships in the workplace.

110+ Years of Catholic Social Thought

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:41:00 +0000

The following article appeared in the September, 2008, edition of Initiatives, the newspaper of the National Center for the Laity.

Is it morally acceptable for cemetery workers (gravediggers, gardeners, clerks and others) to strike, knowing that bereaved families will be inconvenienced? Is it virtuous during negotiations for management to tell its cemetery workers “to take it or leave it” and then refuse further talks or mediation? How are specific labor issues settled while respecting both the right to collective bargaining and the corporal work of mercy to bury the dead?

Such was the situation in January 1949 when 240 workers at Calvary Cemetery in Queens (all of whom were Catholic) went on strike seeking a five-day workweek with the same paycheck they previously earned for six days. Their employer, Cardinal Francis Spellman (1889-1967), offered a 2.6% cost of living increase; participated in two bargaining sessions; then said take it, or leave it and never again communicated with the union. Instead, Spellman brought his seminarians to Queens and personally supervised grave digging. He busted the union.

Arnold Span of St. Francis College in Brooklyn revisits the newspaper articles, correspondence, documents and commentaries on this sad incident in his article, “The Most Memorable Labor Dispute in the History of U.S. Church-Related Institutions.” It is a sad incident because Spellman comes off as a tragic figure, a prisoner to his rigidity and impatience—even though along the way the Spellman team (including a priest director of cemeteries and an attorney) makes innovative suggestions about moral theology. It is sad because our church looks hypocritical; i.e. Catholic principles are binding unless they are inconvenient for bishops. It is sad because Spellman exploits his seminarians. (A further research project might uncover the affect of this incident on the vocations of those young men.)

Spar thoroughly investigates Spellman’s claim that the union was communist. He concludes that Spellman, who initially recognized the union and regularly bargained with it, knew that the workers were not communist. However, drawing upon a technicality regarding CIO affiliation, Spellman clothed his stubbornness in anti-communist rhetoric.

The heart of the difficulty is Spellman’s paternalism, Spar concludes. Spellman doesn’t truly believe that workers have innate dignity, long before they punch the clock. Instead he considers labor relations as a matter of capricious benevolence. His cemetery director says the archdiocese is “not really obligated to recognize the unionization of its employees,” and can ignore what the priest admits “is the social philosophy of the church” whenever workers are ungrateful. (American Catholic Studies [Summer/OS], 263 S. Fourth St., Philadelphia, PA 19106)

Catholic moral principles can go by the wayside inside Church institutions unless bishops and their managers (regardless of their good intentions and their devoutness) put aside paternalism in favor of public accountably. As the current scandalous mismanagement of deviant Church employees proves, the paternalistic style eventually damages our faith.

A current example of misguided good intentions comes from Scranton, a diocese where former bishops, notably Bishop Michael Hoban (1853-1926) and Cardinal John O’Connor (1920-2000), observed the church’s labor doctrines. However, Bishop Joseph Martino (Diocese of Scranton, 300 Wyoming Ave., Scranton, PA 18503; www. dioceseofscranton.org) is now busting a union, the 30-year old Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers (450 Carey Ave. #200, Wilkes-Bare, PA 18702; www.sdact.com).

Martino thinks that violating a Catholic doctrine is necessary for the greater good of the church. After all, reports Suzanne Sataline, Martino’s schools “are grappling with a financial crisis brought about by several factors: plunging enrollments as families choose to send their children to more modem, high-tech secular schools; the growth in tuition-free charter schools; mounting benefits costs; and financially troubled parishes that don’t have extra money to prop up parish schools.” (Wall St. Journal, 7/10/08)

Martino desires the best in a difficult time and admittedly his behavior might buy a little time for a few schools. It is not obvious though how destroying a union will significantly change Pennsylvania demographics, young adult Mass attendance rates, parish finances and other real causes of the school deficits.

Martino is “engaged in a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Bob Wolensky of the University of Wisconsin and an expert on Pennsylvania labor relations tells the Wall St. Journal. “By denying the teachers this right [to collective bargaining] and closing the schools, he has eroded additional support for Catholic schools and therefore the Catholic church.”

The self-defeating paternal approach is not unique to Martino.

About six years ago INITIATIVES began reporting on Resurrection Health Care (7435 W. Talcott Ave., Chicago, IL 60631; www.reshealth.org, a system of hospitals and other facilities sponsored by Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth (310 N. River Rd., DesPlaines, IL 60016; www.csfn.org) and Sisters of the Resurrection (35 Boltwood Ave., Castleton, NY 12033; www. resurreetionsisters.org). Nurses and service workers there want to collectively bargain under the auspice of AFSCME (5509 N. Cumberland Rd. #505, Chicago, IL 60656; www.reformresurrection. 2Kg). The hospital leaders refuse to meet with the workers’ committee.

Workers at St. Joseph Health System (500 S. Main St., Orange, CA 92868; www.stjhs.org) want to be represented through SEIU West (560 Thomas Berkley Way, Oakland, CA 94612; www. voiceatsaintioes.org). The Sisters of St. Joseph (480 S. Batavia St., Orange, CA 92706), who sponsor SJHS, are elsewhere in relationship with unions, including at Kaiser Permanente and Catholic Healthcare West. At SJHS they are blocking an election.

Providence Health System (4805 NE Glisan St., Portland, OR 97213; www.providence. which has a relationship with the Sisters of Providence (9 F. Ninth Ave., Spokane, WA 99202; www.sistersothrovidence.net) and Sisters of the Little Company of Mary (9350S. California Ave., Evergreen Park, IL 60805; www.lcmh.org), is blocking its nurses and other workers from forming a union.

Obviously, orders of women religious face many difficulties in fulfilling their ministry within our society’s dysfunctional health care system. Retaining union-busting consultants is not, however, an ingredient for healing the sick. For its part our National Center for the Laity (P0 Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629) has distributed all but a dozen copies of a 30,000 press run of Ethical Guidelines for a Religious Institution Confronted by a Union by Ed Marciniak. This booklet is sympathetic to administrators trying to make ends meet. Yet the booklet explains what a manager of a Catholic institution (whether she or he is Catholic or not) is allowed to do. As soon as NCL raises a little money, the booklet will be updated and re-issued.

Harder Than Finding a Righteous Man in Sodom

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:30:00 +0000

Below is an update we received from one of our brothers in the labor movement attempting to organize nurses at a system of Catholic hospitals in California.

With Labor Day approaching, and with the ink not yet dry on the US Catholic Bishops Annual Labor Day Statement (see posting from August 19), the incredible hypocrisy being demonstrated by the Church in our situation in Scranton and out in California should cause one to pause and wonder.

These days the likelihood of finding a Church institution that is willing to follow its own teachings on social justice is becoming harder than Abraham finding a righteous man in Sodom.

In recent days, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times brought national media attention to the aggressive anti-union actions of the St. Joseph Health System, where workers are fighting to unionize with SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West. The St. Joseph Health System, which is run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, is a $3.7 billion corporation that employs more than 10,000 staff in nine hospitals across California.

In July, healthcare workers, religious leaders and community supporters conducted a weeklong series of vigils and actions, which culminated in a thousand-person march to the sister’s Mother House, where workers were joined by numerous religious and civic leaders including Dolores Huerta, Monsignor Eugene Boyle and California Attorney General Jerry Brown. Go to www.voiceatsaintjoes.org to view a video of the week’s events.

Days later, the National Labor Relations Board announced the results of a four-month investigation at one SJHS hospital. Federal officials charged the hospital with widespread violations of federal labor law involving 18 of the hospital’s managers in 35 separate incidents, including:

Photographing and videotaping union supporters as they talked to co-workers outside the hospital
Interrogating employees about their support for the union
Calling the police on union supporters to create the impression that lawful union activities were illegal
Physically blocking employees from handing out their union newsletter to co-workers outside the hospital.

Coverage of these events by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have brought broad attention to SJHS’s actions. Here are links to some of the recent articles:

New York Times – Theology Finds Its Way Into a Debate Over Unions
Los Angeles Times - Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange not siding with healthcare workers union
Orange County Register - The sisters have remained deaf to the collective voice of their workers

Thus far, leaders of the St. Joseph Health System continue to refuse workers’ request to sit down and negotiate fair, enforceable ground rules for secret-ballot union elections to ensure that workers can make a choice about unionization without interference from their supervisors, managers and anti-union consultants. This approach, which follows the recommendations of a USCCB working paper entitled “A Fair and Just Workplace: Principles and Practices for Catholic Health Care,” has already been adopted by many of California’s largest hospital companies, including Catholic Healthcare West, Kaiser Permanente, HCA and Tenet Healthcare. Workers simply request that SJHS adopt this same, sensible approach in order to ensure a free and fair union election process. Last week, workers delivered 6,000 postcards signed by community members calling on the Sisters to adopt this approach.

Fred Seavey
SEIU UHW

House debates religious schools’ labor union role

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:29:00 +0000

The following article appeared in the Scranton Times Tribune, August 19, 2008:

House debates religious schools’ labor union role

HARRISBURG — The showdown over a union for teachers in the Diocese of Scranton shifted Monday to a Capitol hearing room.

HARRISBURG — The showdown over a union for teachers in the Diocese of Scranton shifted Monday to a Capitol hearing room.

A bill giving lay teachers and employees of private religious schools the right to join collective bargaining units was debated for five hours at a House Labor Relations Committee hearing.

Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-121, introduced the measure several months ago as members of the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers picketed and staged work stoppages to protest a diocese decision not to recognize them as a collective bargaining unit.

The labor dispute came after the restructuring process in 2006-07 that reduced the number of schools in the Diocese of Scranton. The diocese announced last January it would not recognize the diocese association and announced instead the formation of employee relations councils.

Bill’s provisions

Mr. Pashinski’s bill would allow lay teachers and employees at religious schools to decide by a majority vote in a secret ballot if they want to be represented by a union. Unions in religious schools could bring grievances to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board under the bill. The board would be prohibited from issuing decisions that define or interpret a religious school’s doctrine or change a religious school’s organizational structure.

Mr. Pashinski told panel members he hopes to strike a balance between employee rights and the protection of religious doctrines through the legislation.

Representatives of both sides in the Scranton education dispute — the teachers association and top diocesan officials — staked out opposing positions on the legislation.

Key themes in the testimony involve extending the constitutional right of assembly to religious school teachers, carrying out the mission of Catholic education and maintaining separation between church and state.

Milz testifies

In his testimony, Michael Milz, the diocese association president, said enactment of the legislation will give association members access to the right of association and freedom of speech.

“We ask for the same rights as all workers, nothing more and nothing less,” he added. “We ask for your relief.”

Diocesan officials cited the need to protect the identity of Catholic schools as one reason for their opposition to the bill.

The bill is unnecessary and dangerous, said Mary Tigue, assistant superintendent of schools.

“When you insert yourself into the life of a Catholic school as this legislation does, it is going to cause problems,” she added.

Several members of the evangelical community spoke against the legislation as well. They said it’s difficult to draw a distinction as the bill does between church officials and lay teachers at many private religious schools.

The bill will harm the wall of separation between church and state and undercut the authority of church schools, said Gregory Reed, who described himself as a lay person in an evangelical community in Snyder County.

The committee will hold additional hearings on the bill in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Many have offerings for, against Catholic teachers

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:21:00 +0000

The following article appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, August 19, 2008:

Many have offerings for, against Catholic teachers

Hearing opens for bill that would strengthen teachers’ labor rights.

HARRISBURG -- The legislator and the evangelicals fired dueling Bible verses. Canon law clashed with civil law. Olive branches were tentatively tossed, but it was hard to tell if there were really any takers.

And state AFL-CIO President Bill George lit up a talk-weary room with his patented zeal but poured that passion into mostly empty seats.

The state House of Representatives Labor Relations Committee held a hearing Monday on House Bill 2626 – which would give Catholic school teachers legal protection they currently lack – with an agenda of speakers longer than the time allotted: 18 people were expected to give about 200 pages of printed testimony in about 10 minutes per person.

Slated to last from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., the hearing fell off schedule quickly.

The bill would amend the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act to expressly cover Catholic – and other private school -- teachers, allowing them to appeal to the state Labor Relations Board when denied a chance to unionize. State Rep Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, introduced the bill in response to the battle to unionize Diocese of Scranton teachers.

Pashinski led off the testimony by touting the bill as an effort to help “an entire class of workers falling through legal loopholes.” The State Supreme Court has ruled that Catholic teachers aren’t covered by the law.

Committee member Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler County, questioned the potential for strikes at private schools, noting many people look to them “for a strike-free education.” Pashinski said the amendment doesn’t interfere with the negotiations, it only gives teachers the choice to unionize or not.

National Association of Catholic Teachers President Rita Schwartz and local union president Michael Milz – the man who has spearheaded the union drive since the diocese denied unionization in January – repeated their contention that non-unionized teachers have no legal recourse when treated unfairly. Milz claims he was “fired” from the diocese of Scranton because of his union activity, a charge the diocese has rigorously denied.

Robert O’Hara, executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference – a public affairs arm of the group representing dioceses throughout the state – said there is no way to separate the religious ministry of teachers from the secular matters covered by the bill. Attorney Phillip Murren warned that, as a result, the state would inevitably get tangled in religion issues.
Four representatives of Evangelic organizations noted their faith requires any disputes be resolved among their congregations. Jonathan Lucas cited New Testament passages from Corinthians, and Timothy.

Committee member Frank Andrews Shimkus, D-Scranton, noted he is an ordained minister, and fired back with his own citations from Timothy and Romans that he claimed bolstered the union argument for government intervention, but Lucas countered with a quote from Acts.

Former Kingston resident and counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Mark Chopko gave a multipronged argument that the bill would violate the U.S. Constitution. Attorney Bruce Endy countered with legal citations of his own that he claimed proved the bill would pass Constitutional muster.

The Very Rev. William King argued the bill would clash with Church Canon Law, noting that civil courts have deferred to church tribunals on religious matters.

Joseph Fahey from Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice argued the diocese was violating the Catholic Church’s long-standing teachings supporting unions, but University of Scranton theology professor James Benestad made an equally detailed argument denying that claim.

Diocese of Scranton Catholic Schools Secretary Joseph Casciano and Human Resources Director James Burke said the diocese has gone to great lengths to be fair to school workers through the new Employee Relations Plan. Burke urged the legislators to talk to employees, and though Pashinski said he would like that, no firm responses were made. Pashinski also offered to sit with diocese and union officials to work out an agreement, but that offer generated no firm response.

By the time George spoke, the clock neared 6 p.m. and the crowd had thinned to a handful. George launched into passionate defense of organized labor, dismissed all the sophisticated arguments and said it boils down to one question on unionization.

“Do we have the right or don’t we have the right?”

After adjournment, Pashinski said the length of the hearing would not deter him, and that he wants to schedule a second hearing as soon as possible.

US Conference of Catholic Bishops Issue Annual Labor Day Statement

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:36:00 +0000

Labor Day Statement
An American Catholic Tradition
Most Reverend William F. Murphy
Bishop of Rockville Centre
Chairman, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

September 1, 2008

The late Msgr. George G. Higgins was a remarkable priest whose primary work for many years was connecting the Church and the labor movement around Catholic teaching on worker rights. One of his many contributions was to offer an annual Labor Day statement on issues of work and economic justice. This American Catholic tradition has been continued by the bishop chairman of the Conference committee that works on economic issues. As the new Chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, I take up this task with some trepidation but with a desire to begin by paying homage to my friend of many years, Msgr. George Higgins.

Msgr. Higgins was a powerful bridge between the Catholic Church and the labor movement. He was a realist, but a hopeful one. Monsignor was irascible and rather confident in his opinions as well as in his convictions of what needed to be done. To his very core, he believed that workers were best served by joining together with other workers in a union. I suspect he would have had some trenchant comments about the situation of workers and wages, working conditions, and the changing face of work in a globalized marketplace. While he would have waxed eloquent about the “big picture,” his goal would never stray from an extraordinary ability to measure the large economic issues by their impact on the average working man and woman.

Monsignor would have been harsh in his judgment about the greed and irresponsibility that led to the mortgage foreclosure crisis. He would have had some caustic comments on the price of gas for the working person and its impact on family life. He would have kept a keen eye on the cost of living and its effect on family budgets, on the real value of current wages to buy necessities, and on the challenges to our economy to diversify without losing sight of its traditional strengths and opportunities. Monsignor would have pointed out the lack of union representation in so many of the emerging industries and workplaces where exploitation has been most evident. He would have applauded any and every new initiative that brings labor leadership, management, and related interested parties together as "intermediate institutions" in our society that would be based on mutual respect. He would recognize that such respect furthers the good of the worker, the enterprises involved, and the common good.

Above all Msgr. Higgins would be concerned about the worker, the person, and the family whose daily lives are affected by a host of factors. He would weigh up and measure all those factors by their overall impact on human beings. And then he would have offered a couple of basic suggestions that would move beyond hand wringing and negative assessments. Monsignor would re-assert his faith in a nation and a people whose creative energies and productive capacities should and would move us to a healthier economic situation. He would urge us to remember that in a world of globalized activities, Catholic Social Teaching still offers one of the best ways to assess whether the human person is the center of economic life or whether workers who are poor and marginalized are forgotten.

A Nation Blessed

We are a nation blessed with extraordinary natural and human resources. We have great economic capacity and creativity. We have extraordinary economic power and responsibility.

And, we are free! We all know we face challenges. But when did our nation not have challenges?

Where does it say that we should simply be recipients of the goods of this earth without working for them, without earning them? Creativity and initiative are as much essential elements of our lives today as they have been in the past. This freedom of creative initiative and energy needs to
be tempered by a deep sense of responsibility for one another, for our planet, and for the future. The more we exercise self control in our possession and use of the goods of this earth, sharing
with others opportunities as well as products, the less need we will have for the kinds of regulatory laws that become necessary when economic privateers and profit seeking pirates take over whole areas of our economy.

We are a nation committed to both economic freedom and economic justice. But that cannot mean freedom for me and justice for me alone. The classic linking of the human person with the common good teaches us that we have to use our freedom and creativity not just for ourselves and those we care for. It must extend to all those who are affected by our actions and by society’s goals. That means everybody in today’s globalized world.

A Globalized World

All these challenges and questions are framed in a new light with new dimensions in this age of globalization. The world of work is different than in years past. Finance, production, trade, and labor are no longer local, regional, or national entities, but global. Of itself globalization is a neutral fact. It depends on who takes advantage of the current global economy and how it is put to use. Our present Holy Father Benedict XVI has suggested that this process offers “the hope of wider participation in development” but warns against its risks of “worsening economic inequality.” (May 26, 2007).

Here, two interrelated principles of Catholic Social Teaching come into play. The principle of subsidiarity champions the freedom of initiative that allows everyone scope and opportunity to be creative and productive and reap the benefits of hard work and energy. When taken to the extreme, it can become exploitive of others. Yet joined to the principle of solidarity, subsidiarity and all its creative impulses become harnessed to an end that includes the makers of a vibrant economy. This links their work into a set of relationships bringing new opportunities to one another across political and social divisions and especially across the great divide between rich and poor. Let interdependence become the “solidarity” of neighbor to neighbor in such a way that the subsidiarity of free creativity builds up and offers new possibilities for all neighbors, especially the poor and the vulnerable. The Church continues to echo the call of Pope John Paul II to “globalize solidarity.”

Catholic Social Teaching

The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching has much to offer in these tough economic times. In the midst of the transformation of society during the Industrial Revolution, Pope Leo XIII gave us enduring principles to deal with “new things” in his prophetic encyclical Rerum Novarum. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have made the cause of justice for workers their own, responding to the “new things” in economic life. When Pope John Paul II issued his first “social encyclical,” Laborem Exercens, in 1981, he invited us to look at these issues from the perennial viewpoint of the value of human work which finds its intrinsic meaning in the dignity of the worker.

Msgr. Higgins applauded this teaching of the Holy Father. He saw it as a papal clarion call for all the issues he championed in his own life. He was right because they are all the values stemming from the truth about the inherent dignity and value of the human person that lies at theheart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church continues to focus on the dignity of the worker as the key to the question of work and as the cornerstone of Catholic teaching on economic life. Our challenge is to assess our “new things” by the application of traditional moral principles expressed in Catholic Social Teaching that continue to have remarkable meaning and relevance to us as we celebrate Labor Day 2008.

Labor Day and Politics

This year, we will choose a new president, as well as one-third of the Senate, all the members of the House of Representatives, and myriad state and local officials. The campaign has already been long and, for many, arduous. What can I as a bishop add to this without echoing what has been said better by others? Msgr. Higgins would urge you to look beyond the slogans and the promises. He would ask you to assess the candidates' backgrounds and records. He would have a few choice words for those he deemed unworthy or neglectful of the rights of workers and the role of unions. But he would always insist on some basic principles that we all must follow.

The Bishops of the United States have put forth for Catholics and non-Catholics alike some basic principles to consider. In publishing the new and, I believe, challenging statement, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, we bishops call Catholics to be active and informed participants in political life. We do not seek to impose or imply a preference for one candidate over another. We do propose what is incumbent on all men and women of good will: the formation of a correct conscience based on the truth about the human person and human society.

We cannot emphasize this enough. An informed conscience moves beyond personal feelings and
individual popularity. An informed conscience asks first what is right and true. An informed
conscience examines the candidates and the issues from the perspective of human life and dignity, the true good of every human person, the true good of society, the common good of us all in our nation and in this world.

What can I add to that? Never forget that human life is the supreme good in this world. Never forget that human dignity is not an expendable commodity but belongs to everyone without exception. Every day we are pro-life. Every day we are champions of human dignity. Our voices and our votes should shape society by bringing these inalienable truths into every particular proposal and program, every particular candidate’s projects and plans. The Bishops’ statement makes both links and distinctions between the fundamental duty to oppose what is intrinsically evil (i.e., the destruction of unborn life) and the obligation to pursue the common good (i.e., defending the rights of workers and pursuing greater economic justice). I urge you to review and reflect on this challenging call to be salt, light, and leaven in this election year and beyond (see http://www.faithfulcitizenship.org/).

A Catholic Framework

We Catholics have been blessed by a centennial of Catholic Social Teaching. I personally have been privileged to work with three Popes in this field and have been formed by their vision and their teaching. The Church offers this, not just to Catholics, but to all men and women of goodwill. We are convinced that the truths about the human person in society that come to us fromboth reason and revelation must be brought into all the economic, social, civil, political, and
cultural relationships that make up a good society. The human and moral dimensions of economic life are key principles in Catholic thought. Catholic social and moral teaching on these matters offers hope and direction in difficult times. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church provides us with a summary and synthesis of the Church’s teaching on economic life as well as other aspects of the Catholic social tradition. [See Chapter VI “Human Work” and Chapter VII “Economic Life,” Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2004 )] I recommend it to you.

The bishops of the United States reflect this teaching as they outline key elements of a just
economy in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. These basics need to be part of the
national discussion as we choose leaders and develop policies for the future:

The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. Employers contribute to the common good through the services or products they provide and by creating jobs that uphold the dignity and rights of workers—to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to adequate benefits and security in their old age, to the choice of whether to organize and join unions, to the opportunity for legal status for immigrant workers, to private property, and to economic initiative. Workers also have responsibilities—to provide a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay,
to treat employers and co-workers with respect, and to carry out their work in ways that contribute to the common good. Workers, employers, and unions should not only advance their own interests, but also work together to advance economic justice and the well-being of all. (#52)

Overcoming Poverty

Poverty has many faces. And they are the faces of our brothers and sisters here in our own country and around the world. Whether I am in remote corners of Africa or the streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts, I am convinced that when we face up to the needs of these our brothers and sisters, the challenge of overcoming poverty brings the Catholic community together. The Catholic Church is committed to making her contribution to alleviating the pain of poverty at every level: internationally, nationally, and especially locally through the magnificent endeavors of priests, religious, and laity in our parishes. Things may be tough for an awful lot of us today.

But no matter how difficult it might be for you or me, I believe each of us can name someone we
know who is carrying a greater burden. I can hear Msgr. Higgins telling us “Don’t forget the other guy,” especially the person with less. That person has hopes and dreams, too. That person comes from a family and belongs to our human family. That person has dignity because all of us are created in the image of God.

Let me close by sharing with you some thoughts from Pope Benedict’s powerful
encyclical Deus Caritas Est:

Love of God and love of neighbor have become one: In the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God….Love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind is as essential to [the Church] as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel. (# 15, 22)

To one and all, I wish you a most happy and relaxing Labor Day with family and friends. I hope this Labor Day will bring a renewed vigor as we seek to build together a society that cares for its own, reaches out to the poor and vulnerable, and offers true hope to all. Let us share justly and freely the goods of society and advance the good of every person and the common good of all.

Hearing scheduled for HB 2626

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:44:00 +0000

On August 18, 2008, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Labor Relations Committee will hold a hearing on HB 2626 which will amend the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act to include coverage for the employees of religiously-affiliated schools. The hearing will be held in Harrisburg and will begin at 1:00 PM in Room 140 Main Capitol (Majority Caucus Room).

SDACT urges all of its members and all of those in the community who support our campaign for justice and dignity to contact the members of the Labor Relations Committee, and ask that they vote in favor of moving HB 2626 to the floor of the House of Representatives for consideration by the entire House.

Click on the following link for the names of the members of the Labor Relations Committee. Follow additional links on that page for their contact information. http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/cteeInfo/cteeInfo.cfm?cde=26&body=H

Holy Redeemer official in Milz controversy goes to Sem

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:12:00 +0000

The following article appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, August 5, 2008:

Holy Redeemer official in Milz controversy goes to Sem

WILKES-BARRE – Holy Redeemer High School Academic Vice Principal Robert Beviglia is resigning and going across the river to work at Wyoming Seminary. Beviglia hit the headlines when Catholic teachers union president Michael Milz insisted the vice principal had made statements proving the diocese laid off Milz because of his union activities.

Milz made those claims on July 18, backed by two parents with children at Holy Redeemer. All three said Beviglia had told them things that proved the diocese deliberately targeted Milz, and tried to cover the action by laying off other teachers at the same time, intending to bring one of those laid-off teachers back.

At the time, Beviglia referred all questions to diocese spokesman Bill Genello, and the diocese issued a statement repeating its insistence that Milz, a teacher at Holy Redeemer for 33 years, was laid off due to declining enrollment and because he had lowest seniority in his department, social studies. In July, Holy Redeemer Principal James Redington denied all the allegations leveled by Milz.

On Monday, Beviglia declined comment on his resignation, but Redington confirmed it. “He submitted a very complimentary letter of resignation thanking the entire Holy Redeemer community for the kindness and support we have shown him and his family,” Redington said. “And we thank him as well. I had the opportunity to do that personally this morning.”
Redington said no pressure had been put on Beviglia since July 18, and the resignation had “nothing to do with past developments.

But Milz saw things differently. “I don’t know how he could have continued working at Holy Redeemer, having been the person who exposed the conspiracy that led to my dismissal and to the unnecessary layoff of another teacher. I’m surprised he made it through the past two weeks.”

Milz said he is “happy” Beviglia landed a new position, and that “Bob was somebody of great value to Holy Redeemer and to Catholic education.” Milz repeated his contention that Redington and diocesan Superintendent of Schools Joe Casciano are the ones who should resign, not Beviglia. “We were hoping that he would be the one who remained, the only person who showed a shred of integrity.”

Milz is head of the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers, the union that represented many local Catholic teachers until last year, when the diocese restructured the system, taking control of the schools from local boards and parishes and putting them under four regional school boards.

Newspaper strike of 1978 was guided by men of great faith

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:27:00 +0000

The following editorial appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice, August 5, 2008:

Newspaper strike of 1978 was guided by men of great faith

Rev. Dr. Jule Ayers was a courageous man. The Presbyterian minister could have sat in the background and comfortably served his flock in one of downtown Wilkes-Barre’s larger churches. But he spoke out, loudly and often, on what he saw as injustices to the people of all colors, faiths and ethnic backgrounds in his beloved Wyoming Valley.

Thus, it came as no surprise to many when Dr. Ayers publicly chastised Capital Cities Communications, Inc., in the summer of 1978 after the new owners of The Wilkes-Barre Publishing Company installed a fence topped with barbed wire, mounted surveillance cameras and imported hundreds of Wackenhut Corporation guards.

Cap Cities was out to break the newspaper unions. Dr. Ayers spoke out, not necessarily in a pro-union stance. He recognized the rights of labor and management, but he was chagrined at what he saw as an affront to the community, a militant show of force intended to demean and crush working people.

The Citizens’ Voice, the newspaper started by the union employees three days after the strike began on Oct. 6, seized Dr. Ayers’ words and played them on page 1 of the first issue.

I have a very personal attachment to Dr. Ayers. Upon his death in 1994, I was one of four people from the community invited to eulogize this great man. The church was packed, again by his true “flock,’’ people of all colors, faiths and ethnicity. It was an “As ye sow, so shall ye reap’’ moment.

How ironic that 30 years later, Bishop Joseph Martino of the Catholic Diocese of Scranton, has used his office to deny his own lay teachers the right to collective bargaining.

There is yet another faith-based and love-of-neighbor irony. Jim Orcutt, the strike leader dispatched to Wilkes-Barre by The Newspaper Guild, left his full-time job as a labor organizer/negotiator and founded My Brother’s Keeper, a volunteer-based outreach ministry based in Brocton, Mass.

Over its 20-year history, My Brother’s Keeper has made more than 80,000 deliveries of furniture, food and Christmas gifts to families in need. When My Brother’s Keeper makes a furniture delivery, no donation is accepted. Jim or another volunteer presses a small crucifix into the recipient’s hand and tells him or her, “He sent us.’’

It all started with Jim and his wife, Terry, as they watched a television report about a family in need of furniture. “We can help,’’ he said, and they did. Today, 2,000 volunteers staff unmarked trucks that haul donated furniture from a warehouse. When the volunteers began to find family’s hungry, food was added to the My Brother’s Keeper “to-do’’ list. Christmas gifts came next.

Dr. Ayers was influenced by the same tradition, one with roots extending back to the 1902 anthracite strike that brought The Rev. John Joseph Curran of Holy Saviour Church, Wilkes-Barre, and President Theodore Roosevelt to the support of John Mitchell and his mine workers. The Mitchell statue is only a short walk from Bishop Martino’s residence. Maybe he should take an evening stroll to get some inspiration.

Paul Golias, retired managing editor of The Citizens’ Voice, writes a weekly column on regional issues. His column on the first Tuesday of the month through October will be a reflection on the 1978 labor dispute that included start-up of the newspaper. He can be contacted at pgolias@verizon.net

The new Diocesan teachers "contract" - a teaching moment

noreply@blogger.com (SDACT) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:25:00 +0000

One of the topics that is covered in every American History class is that of Joseph McCarthy and the use of the "big lie."

During the Cold War era, Senator Joseph McCarthy and his unscrupulous toady, Roy Cohn, would create lies of such enormity, and with such incredible detail, that most reasonable people, unable to believe that such enormous untruthfulness could be manufactured by someone in such an esteemed position, came to the conclusion that McCarthy must be telling the truth. Thus, for a while almost the entire country believed what McCarthy was dishing out.

Stories in the most recent Catholic Light and comments coming from the Diocesan office seem to indicate that Bishop Joseph Martino has taken to the tactics of his namesake, and Bill Genello seems all too eager to emulate Roy Cohn.

In the end, the lies caught up to McCarthy and Cohn and were their undoing. And the rest, as they say, is history.

So we'll leave it to the public to decide the issue about the new teachers' "contract."

Will they believe that even the mere handful of teachers who cooperated in the immoral company union prefer a three-page "contract" as being offered by the Diocese to the LEGALLY-BINDING forty-page contracts that had covered our unionized teachers up to 2007?
Will the public believe that teachers don't want due process and union representation?
Will the public believe that our teachers would not like tenure?
Will they believe that our teachers don't want their working conditions spelled out in their entirety?
Will they believe that our teachers desire to be nothing more than at-will employees?

As for those of us who back the SDACT campaign, we'll believe it when they allow our teachers a vote to decide how we wish to be represented.