Freedom of association is basic right that’s being denied Catholic teachers
The following letter to the editor appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice, May 28, 2008:
Freedom of association is basic right that’s being denied Catholic teachers
Editor:
What would be your response if today you were told by your boss that, as a condition of your continuing employment, you would have to agree to become a second-class American citizen? That is, how would you feel if the provisions of the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights – that same part of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion – did not apply to you?
Would you accept those terms from your employer? Would you willingly become a second-class American? Would you sacrifice the basic rights for which hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives in wars over the last two centuries? I hope the answer any American would give is the same one my colleagues and I have given to our boss who has asked us to accept that type of second-class American citizenship – “Absolutely never!”
The fact is, and rightly so, no American should ever be placed in such a circumstance. Yet, due to a loophole in the existing law, that is the position in which Catholic school teachers are placed in the Diocese of Scranton, and elsewhere in the state of Pennsylvania. This is the case because another of the first amendment freedoms guaranteed to all Americans — except us — is freedom of assembly (meaning freedom of association). It is this constitutional right that underlies and supports the creation of national and state laws which guarantee the right of nearly all people to join freely-formed associations of workers – i.e., labor unions.
For workers in Pennsylvania, the right to form unions is guaranteed either by national law under the National Labor Relations Act, or Pennsylvania state law under the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act. These pieces of legislation were written in 1935 and 1937 respectively. However, for Catholic school lay teachers, these laws provide no provision for our rights.
In a United States Supreme Court Ruling in 1979 (Catholic Bishop of Chicago v. NLRB) and in a ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1996 (Association of Catholic Teachers, Local 1776 et. al. v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board), both courts ruled that in the absence of a clear intention on the part of the lawmakers to include lay teachers as employees covered by those acts, such teachers were not to be considered employees under the statutes. In other words, neither law specifically mentioned Catholic school lay teachers as a specific group of workers in the body of the law.
Legal scholars are very critical of the reasoning behind those two rulings. They ask “how could either of those laws included mention of Catholic school lay teachers when, in the 1930s, that job category did not exist?” In the ‘30s, the only teachers in Catholic schools were nuns, priests and religious brothers. Nonetheless, it is that loophole that the current Bishop of Scranton, Joseph Martino, has exploited to deny his employees their basic American rights.
Now however, thanks to the efforts of our local legislators (spearheaded by Representative Eddie Day Pashinski) and the overwhelming support our teachers have received from citizens across northeastern and central Pennsylvania, that loophole is being closed. A bill is making its way through the Pennsylvania General Assembly that will demonstrate a clear intent to include Catholic school lay teachers under the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act.
We ask that all citizens in our area visit, write or call their representatives in the general assembly and ask them to become cosponsors of this legislation.
The correction to this omission in the law will do nothing more than level the playing field for our teachers. It will give us the same rights (no more and no less) than those possessed by all American workers. It will guarantee to us that we would never again be asked to become second-class Americans.
Michael A. Milz, President
Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers
A shortened version of this letter appeared in the Scranton Times Tribune, May 30, 2008:
YOUR OPINION 05/30/2008
Freedom of association is basic right that’s being denied Catholic teachers
Editor:
What would be your response if today you were told by your boss that, as a condition of your continuing employment, you would have to agree to become a second-class American citizen? That is, how would you feel if the provisions of the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights – that same part of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion – did not apply to you?
Would you accept those terms from your employer? Would you willingly become a second-class American? Would you sacrifice the basic rights for which hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives in wars over the last two centuries? I hope the answer any American would give is the same one my colleagues and I have given to our boss who has asked us to accept that type of second-class American citizenship – “Absolutely never!”
The fact is, and rightly so, no American should ever be placed in such a circumstance. Yet, due to a loophole in the existing law, that is the position in which Catholic school teachers are placed in the Diocese of Scranton, and elsewhere in the state of Pennsylvania. This is the case because another of the first amendment freedoms guaranteed to all Americans — except us — is freedom of assembly (meaning freedom of association). It is this constitutional right that underlies and supports the creation of national and state laws which guarantee the right of nearly all people to join freely-formed associations of workers – i.e., labor unions.
For workers in Pennsylvania, the right to form unions is guaranteed either by national law under the National Labor Relations Act, or Pennsylvania state law under the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act. These pieces of legislation were written in 1935 and 1937 respectively. However, for Catholic school lay teachers, these laws provide no provision for our rights.
In a United States Supreme Court Ruling in 1979 (Catholic Bishop of Chicago v. NLRB) and in a ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1996 (Association of Catholic Teachers, Local 1776 et. al. v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board), both courts ruled that in the absence of a clear intention on the part of the lawmakers to include lay teachers as employees covered by those acts, such teachers were not to be considered employees under the statutes. In other words, neither law specifically mentioned Catholic school lay teachers as a specific group of workers in the body of the law.
Legal scholars are very critical of the reasoning behind those two rulings. They ask “how could either of those laws included mention of Catholic school lay teachers when, in the 1930s, that job category did not exist?” In the ‘30s, the only teachers in Catholic schools were nuns, priests and religious brothers. Nonetheless, it is that loophole that the current Bishop of Scranton, Joseph Martino, has exploited to deny his employees their basic American rights.
Now however, thanks to the efforts of our local legislators (spearheaded by Representative Eddie Day Pashinski) and the overwhelming support our teachers have received from citizens across northeastern and central Pennsylvania, that loophole is being closed. A bill is making its way through the Pennsylvania General Assembly that will demonstrate a clear intent to include Catholic school lay teachers under the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act.
We ask that all citizens in our area visit, write or call their representatives in the general assembly and ask them to become cosponsors of this legislation.
The correction to this omission in the law will do nothing more than level the playing field for our teachers. It will give us the same rights (no more and no less) than those possessed by all American workers. It will guarantee to us that we would never again be asked to become second-class Americans.
Michael A. Milz, President
Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers
A shortened version of this letter appeared in the Scranton Times Tribune, May 30, 2008:
YOUR OPINION 05/30/2008
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