Update Pennsylvania law to help Catholic teachers
The following letter to the editor appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice, May 15, 2008:
Update Pennsylvania law to help Catholic teachers
Editor:
Most of the people in this area already know how the Bishop of Scranton is ignoring church teachings about labor rights. He refuses to treat his own teachers with the respect and dignity they have earned after many have dedicated 30, 35 and some more than 40 years of their lives to working for the church. What people may not know is how the governments of the United States and the state of Pennsylvania have been treating these same teachers.
In the eyes of the government we are second class citizens who are denied the protection of the law given to everyone else. Workers in every kind job can form a union and this right can’t be denied by their employer under protection of the labor relations laws of the federal and state governments.
In California there is presently an attempt to organize labor unions for the workers at car washes who dry the cars with rags. Many of them are the illegal aliens but the government of the United States and that of California both offer these workers protection, no questions asked.
Catholic lay teachers however have no such rights. When the federal and state labor laws were written in the 1930’s Catholic schools were staffed by priests, sisters and brothers; there were no Catholic lay teachers so no provisions were written into the laws. Since that time only New York, New Jersey, and Minnesota have added such a provision to their labor acts. In the other 47 states, including Pennsylvania, Catholic lay teachers have no protection.
This is why the Bishop could bust the teachers union that has existed for 30 years simply by saying there will be no union. In any other business an employer doing this would have been cited, fined, and even arrested under existing state or federal labor laws. I think it is time to give Catholic teachers the equal protection under the law guaranteed by the constitution.
Eugene Gowisnok
Swoyersville
Update Pennsylvania law to help Catholic teachers
Editor:
Most of the people in this area already know how the Bishop of Scranton is ignoring church teachings about labor rights. He refuses to treat his own teachers with the respect and dignity they have earned after many have dedicated 30, 35 and some more than 40 years of their lives to working for the church. What people may not know is how the governments of the United States and the state of Pennsylvania have been treating these same teachers.
In the eyes of the government we are second class citizens who are denied the protection of the law given to everyone else. Workers in every kind job can form a union and this right can’t be denied by their employer under protection of the labor relations laws of the federal and state governments.
In California there is presently an attempt to organize labor unions for the workers at car washes who dry the cars with rags. Many of them are the illegal aliens but the government of the United States and that of California both offer these workers protection, no questions asked.
Catholic lay teachers however have no such rights. When the federal and state labor laws were written in the 1930’s Catholic schools were staffed by priests, sisters and brothers; there were no Catholic lay teachers so no provisions were written into the laws. Since that time only New York, New Jersey, and Minnesota have added such a provision to their labor acts. In the other 47 states, including Pennsylvania, Catholic lay teachers have no protection.
This is why the Bishop could bust the teachers union that has existed for 30 years simply by saying there will be no union. In any other business an employer doing this would have been cited, fined, and even arrested under existing state or federal labor laws. I think it is time to give Catholic teachers the equal protection under the law guaranteed by the constitution.
Eugene Gowisnok
Swoyersville
posted by SDACT at
6:58 AM
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