Union flap echoes statewide

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.