Union-busting bishop hires high-priced lobbying firm

Our friends in the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives have told us they have been receiving new visitors lately, urging them to oppose the passage of HB 26. No, they are not the army of union-hating parents the Diocese had recently tried to recruit. Instead, the new visitors bearing the Diocese’s union-busting message are lobbyists working for the Harrisburg based Bravo Group, whose services have been retained by Bishop Martino. And, those services don’t come cheap by any means. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that in 2008, Bravo was charging one of its customers $26, 350 per month. That’s several thousand dollars more than many Catholic school teachers earn in a year.

Our friends in the State House find this latest turn of events more than a little puzzling, particularly considering that the Diocese had previously presented the following facts to lawmakers in support of their opposition to HB 26:

• Dozens of Catholic schools have been closed for good.
• Half the parishes in the Diocese will soon be shuttered.
• The Bishop’s Annual Appeal is millions of dollars behind its fundraising goal.
• The Diocese owes its teachers nearly 2 million dollars in severance and sick day pay, but has not paid this legal debt.
• Bishop Martino busted the teachers union because it would make unreasonable financial demands on the Diocese.
• HB 26 must not become law because it will allow teachers the right to have a union of their own choosing which would mean the end of Catholic education.
  

What has justified all of these decisions? According to Bishop Martino, it is the disastrous state of Diocesan finances.

In the face of the Bishop’s hue and cry over the financial stress of the Diocese, he will, however, expend considerable sums of money to subvert the rights of his lay teachers. To prevent the passage of HB 26, the Diocese hired an extremely high-priced lobbying firm. "How," our lawmakers ask, "can an organization in such dire financial shape afford this?"

Besides our legislators, that’s a question we hope all Diocesan parishioners demand that the Bishop answer. However, we know it is highly unlikely they will ever get one.

Such actions , we believe, indicate that Bishop Martino’s desire to prevent the passage of HB 26 has now reached maniacal proportions. With Bravo added, the Diocese now has two lobbying groups on the payroll. The Bishop is also continuing to pay for the services of the lobbyists who work for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. Evidently, he must be unhappy with the lack of traction the arguments of the PCC have had in the House of Representatives. Hiring Bravo is another sign of the Diocese’s desperation.

The Bishop can spend every last dime the people of the Diocese are willing to give him and he will still fail to prevent the passage of HB 26. Last year during one of the hearings held before the House Labor Relations Committee, one member of the Committee told the crowd that he thought the Bill would pass “unanimously.” At the time, even our most ardent supporters thought his comments a bit hyperbolic. Not now. We have found no one in the legislature who is unsympathetic to our cause. All see our issue as one of basic fairness. We could not hope for more, for as the only group of workers to lack coverage under either federal or state labor laws, that is our argument in a nutshell.

Finally, we hope that all who give money to their parish or to the Bishop’s Appeal stop and think for a minute. Do you want your money squandered in such a way as this? Do you want to assist the Bishop in his fanatical desire to deprive our teachers of their rights? If not, send him a message by putting your donations in escrow until the Bishop changes his union-busting ways.