UNION IN MUSCLE IN PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS
Gibbons, Russell W.
Union Muscle In Parochial Schools If big city school systems are experiencing the sharp edge of budget cuts and the rising discontent of professionals who are looking toward trade union solutions,...
...The reaction from some quarters has not reflected the "progressive, social encyclical" posture which has generally found expression among the Catholic bishops in the past 40 years, and while the National Conference of Catholic Bishops has so far stepped around eggs on the issue, some of its members have come down with a heavy hand...
...The other conflict is so obvious as to be almost embarrassing: "The same bishops who back the United Farm Workers and their right to representation and representative elections seem selectively ignorant of the principles of social justice when their own employees are involved," the Association of Catholic Teachers recently wrote to Cardinal Krol...
...Application of the "faithful children" concept of the immigrant church would seem to have little support when professionals in Catholic schools see their fellow teachers in public institutions thousands of dollar away in the income and benefits sectors...
...In Pittsburgh, in the wake of the bitter two-month-long strike of the city's public school teachers, an NLRB election has been authorized for the diocesan elementary schools for this month...
...R.W.G...
...A diocesan attorney in Gary, Ind...
...The unionization of Catholic high schools and elementary schools offers only destruction," declared the parish bullletin of a northside church recently, warning the congregation that the leaders of the Pittsburgh AFT and the Pittsburgh Diocesan Teachers were acting "in the style of Hitler and Mussolini...
...recently wrote the Association of Catholic Teachers that "(Canon Law and theology) experts all agree that a union such as you propose is contrary to the teachings of the church and in direct violation of Canon Law...
...The Association of Catholic Teachers, an affiliate of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO American Federation of Teachers, called it a "ploy," observing that it had sought for over a year to meet with Cardinal Krol on the issue, without success...
...Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Gary, Indiana, and even Kailua, Hawaii, are expected to have NLRB elections which could result in unionization of faculties on the elementary and secondary level of Catholic schools...
...This spring the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency which supervises the collective bargaining process for the Department of Labor, is sending staff into half a dozen cities where teachers and (excluding clerical and religious) other employees, have petitioned for elections to determine if unions should represent them in Catholic school systems...
...These tactics appear to be more in vogue than any frontal assault in a diocese which has long projected a "pro-labor" image, with an annual "St...
...Joseph the Worker" ceremony and Labor Day Mass...
...In Philadelphia in January, several pastors in the archdiocese announced legal action to enjoin the NLRB from setting up an election for the 2,000 lay teachers in the archdiocesan elementary schools, declaring that the Board's presence would "plunge the government deeply into the affairs of parish schools...
...Union Muscle In Parochial Schools If big city school systems are experiencing the sharp edge of budget cuts and the rising discontent of professionals who are looking toward trade union solutions, then the long-neglected plight of lay teachers in the Catholic schools may provide additional evidence that the church cannot insulate its parochial institutions from the conflicts of a secular society...
Vol. 103 • April 1976 • No. 9
