HB 26 to enter legislative pipeline - please contact House Labor Relations Committee

All friends and supporters of the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers are asked for their immediate assistance at a crucial time in our campaign for justice and dignity for the lay employees of Pennsylvania's Catholic schools.

Within the next week, House Bill 26 will be entering the legislative pipeline. It is now time to turn our attention to the immediate task at hand, which is to make sure that the Bill will be successfully voted out of the House Labor Relations Committee.

Please take the time to contact the members of the Committee and urge them to vote in favor of HB 26. To find their contact information, please click on the member’s name from the list below. If you click on the following link, you will find some basics about the Bill. You can use this information to frame your message.
HB%2026%20Basics.doc

Representatives listen to and act on what the people want. Please let them know how desperately we need HB 26. Our opponents are busily at work using their high-priced lobbyists to defeat the Bill. But that’s all they have. Our campaign has thousands of concerned individuals from across the State who believe in the righteousness of our cause. Let's make sure those voices are heard loud and clear.

Thanks for your support of our just cause.

Members of the House Labor Relations Committee

Belfanti, Robert E., Jr.

Gergely, Marc J.,

Galloway, John T. ,
DiGirolamo, Gene ,
Boyle, Brendan F.

Casorio, James E., Jr.

Gibbons, Jaret

Goodman, Neal P

Harkins, Patrick J.

Keller, William F.

Murphy, Kevin P.

Parker, Cherelle L.

Sabatina, John P., Jr.

Seip, Tim

Smith, Ken

White, Jesse
Bear, John C.

Boyd, Scott W.

Cox, Jim

Delozier, Sheryl M.

Farry, Frank A.

Grell, Glen R.

Metcalfe, Daryl D.

Mustio, T. Mark

O'Neill, Bernie

Tallman, Will

More Perfect Unions

The following article appeared in the Jesuit magazine, America, on March 9, 2009. It is an edorsement for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. SDACT's friends, "Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice," have also endorsed the Act. We encourage all to add your personal endorsement. You can do so by clicking on the following link: http://www.catholicscholarsforworkerjustice.org/sulatagb/sulatagb_a.php

I t took more effort and resulted in more “blood on the floor” than pundits predicted, but our lawmakers have at last settled upon an economic stimulus package. With that must-do measure in the rearview mirror, Congress and the Obama administration are turning their sights elsewhere. Bills regarding health care, immigration and other pressing items are being introduced daily.

I wish I could report brighter prospects for harmonious resolution of any of these weighty matters. But realistically, when legislators answer the bell for the second round of the bout called Politics 2009, we may expect just as little true bipartisanship and just as much acrimony as we saw in the opening weeks of the Obama presidency.

One important item I recommend tracking through Congress is the Employee Free Choice Act, or EFCA. A reform of federal labor law is hardly riveting to most people, but a great deal is at stake in getting this particular issue right. The way workers are treated is above all an ethical question, involving notions like equity and human rights, not merely a technical legal question involving bureaucratic procedures. Since many observers see no need to change the rules regulating the process of union organizing and collective bargaining, this act is sure to spark a lively exchange of blows on Capitol Hill.

The core of the proposed legislation affects how unions are certified in a given workplace. Most importantly, EFCA re-establishes the principle of “majority sign-up,” a requirement that an employer recognize a union if a majority of the employees sign authorization cards. Majority sign-up would provide workers an alternative to the “secret ballot” elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, a process established by the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 and which most employers favor. The bill would also beef up penalties against firms that harass or coerce employees seeking to organize. Finally, the act would require parties that fail to reach a collective bargaining agreement within 120 days to go to an arbitrator to resolve their disputes.
The facts regarding most of the relevant claims are hotly contested, as a scan of recent editorials and Web sites maintained by affected parties indicates. Organized labor characterizes EFCA as a common-sense reform that levels the playing field, after decades of corporate intimidation against employees attempting in good faith to exercise their right to organize. In the face of fierce union-busting campaigns, the democratic-sounding procedure of secret ballot elections is less likely than ever to yield results that truly reflect worker sentiment. Opponents counter that current union election procedures, which include conventional secret ballot elections, already protect against all likely abuses.

Obviously, Congress will have to deliberate at great length in order to sort out these claims and counter-claims. That is what public hearings are for, and no brief article can aspire to weigh all the relevant facts and reach a clear verdict. Suffice it to say that there is enough evidence readily available in the public record to support many of the arguments of those advocating change in the way our nation defines and applies its labor laws. The prevalence of union-busting efforts and systematic violations of workers’ rights cannot go unchallenged.

What is the religious angle on this issue? Most denominations in the United States eagerly affirm labor rights and express enthusiasm for the principle of free and fair collective bargaining. A review of the 2004 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church shows that the support of Catholic social teaching for workers’ rights to organize is beyond dispute. From Pope Leo XIII to John Paul II, the right to form unions has been regarded as an indispensable element of economic justice.

Tricky questions may arise, however, when individual Catholics seek to discern whether a given legal measure is necessary to ensure the right of workers to form unions. My judgment is that EFCA is indeed necessary to protect the right of workers to unionize, a right that has been under sharp attack in recent decades. I urge all people of good will to check out the facts, consult their consciences and form a prudential judgment on this important issue.

It may not grab many headlines, but EFCA is emerging as one of the major moral issues of 2009.

Thomas Massaro, S.J., teaches social ethics at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Chestnut Hill, Mass. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Bishop Martino takes church back to the Dark Ages

The following letter to the editor of the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice appeared on April 1, 2009:

Bishop Martino takes church back to the Dark Ages

Editor:

The situation concerning the Catholic school teachers of the Diocese of Scranton is reminiscent of the Dark Ages. Bishop Martino needs to keep an open mind. Refusing to negotiate is never the answer. This situation parallels what is taking place in a few of the local public school districts. Teachers in general should not be made scapegoats for the incompetence of others, due to the mismanagement of money.

The diocese is full of truly committed teachers who have devoted their lives to teaching. Any condemnation of these individuals for leading a just cause is farcical. They have given so much, for so little in return. The bishop is treating the people he calls his flock like dirt.

Hillary Clinton said to a crowd of 3,000 listeners in Scranton, “the teachers are the people in the trenches, they are the experts.” But the bishop is driving the people of his diocese backwards. To hell with diversity and open-mindedness, to hell with fair labor relations, and to hell with the schools and the churches; the legacy of their existence means nothing. The bishop cares nothing about the colors, the pride or the accomplishments that were built up over many years. The only colors he sees are black and white. Black and white thinking, along with preaching guilt and damnation have been driving people away from the church for years. Christ is supposed to represent love, peace and acceptance. These qualities define the Catholic school teachers in my experience.

It is time to give back to the people who have done so much for so many. The teachers of the Diocese of Scranton deserve a union, a substantial pay increase and a weighty apology. I wish them the best of everything, and thank them for a job extremely well done.

Joe Dombroski
Wyoming