Bishop: “Decision is final and will not be revoked”

In light of the recent protests, picketing and demonstrations, the following statement was released today by the Diocese:

After thoroughly evaluating all of these considerations, Bishop Martino has determined that the best course of action for the future stability of our new school systems is the implementation of an Employee Relations Program…. This decision is final and will not be revoked, and the implementation of the Employee Relations Program has begun. 

How effective can an employee relations program be when the employer refuses to speak with his employees, let alone negotiate wages and benefits? The bishop’s handling of this situation has been both disappointing and embarrassing. Yet he expresses disappointment in “the invective and disrespect that have been unleashed against me through public statements and quotes in the media by SDACT’s leadership and supporters both local and from Philadelphia and locales outside the Diocese of Scranton.”

Godspeed, SDACT.

Holy Redeemer Students Walk Out in Support of Teachers

Photo credit: WNEP-TV

Photo credit: The Citizen’s Voice

Despite a stern warning from school administrators posted on the diocesan website, about 200 students at Holy Redeemer courageously walked out of classes following the homeroom bell this morning in support of their teachers’ right to unionize. A number of parents also participated in the rally, and a handful of administrators walked alongside students out of concern for their safety. Students who participated in the demonstration have been notified that they must attend a 2 1/2 hour detention period on Saturday, March 8.

In the news:
Times-Leader: Holy Redeemer teachers picket, students walk out
Citizen’s Voice: Redeemer students, teachers on same page in union battle

SDACT Issues Press Release

The following statement was released today by the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers:

“Today, the teachers at Holy Redeemer High School in Wilkes-Barre, members of the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers, reported off from school ill and demoralized by the treatment they are receiving at the hands of the Scranton Diocese. This is the first of what could become a number of similar actions across the Diocese of Scranton.

The action is intended to call attention to the serious nature of the ongoing dispute with Diocesan officials where our teachers’ right to organize and bargain is being violated, contrary to the clearly-specified teachings of the Catholic Church.

Please be aware that the action taken at Holy Redeemer, the largest school in the Diocese, is a very measured and symbolic response to the current crisis, and is indicative of the narrowing options available to our teachers as they seek a resolution of the crisis.

Rather than disrupt the educational process at all schools where teachers support the union, at this point we have chosen instead to affect the educational process in one school for one day. We have chosen a high school, and have given the authorities there enough warning to be able to make plans to assure the safety of the students. In contrast, by not calling for a more general response from teachers at this point, parents of children in elementary schools are unaffected, and thus parents did not have to secure alternative child care.

We are making every effort to avoid a general disruption in the educational process, especially one that will be difficult for our parents. We invite all parents to lend us their support, in both word and deed because we believe our cause is just and because we believe that their voices would be valuable in promoting a peaceful resolution to this dispute.

In his letter on personnel policies that has been run as an ad in local papers, Bishop Martino alleges that the concern of our union over the last thirty years has been one based solely on financial issues. Once again, we believe that the Bishop is receiving bad advice from his consultants. We invite anyone in the community to objectively examine the facts to see if that evaluation is valid.

In its thirty-year history, the SDACT negotiated hundreds of contracts, each covering a gamut of employment terms and only two pages of which address salaries and fringe benefits, the rest being concerned with everyday working conditions, e.g. maternity leave, grievance processing and tenure.

First, we make no excuses for what our contracts have called for financially. Even at those schools that had the highest-paid teachers, wages and benefits ran far below those enjoyed by public school teachers. Our union has always accepted the fact that our teachers would never see parity in these areas. Instead, we have always looked on our job as a ministry or vocation, one in which we have had a chance to mold the next generation of Catholic adults into productive and Christian members of society. While we have always tried to negotiate a “living wage” and adequate health care for our families (both our rights under Church teaching), our prime focus has always been on creating working conditions which maximize our ability to provide the best possible learning environment for our students.

For the Bishop, therefore, to assume that to recognize the SDACT as the union for Diocesan teachers would be to foster greed and gratuitous economic self-interest is contrary to obvious and long-standing facts as well as an insult to our dedicated teachers. Again, we believe that the Bishop is getting bad advice.

The goal of the SDACT has always been and will continue to be to offer parents the quality education that includes a measure of self determination for the teachers. SDACT has negotiated for smaller class size, a modern curriculum, improvements to laboratory safety, better prepared teachers and myriad others issues affecting the school community. In some cases we have been a countervailing force to budgeting that would lead to less education rather than more.

Moreover, because of our union, veteran teachers now staff Diocesan schools – teachers who have dedicated their lives and careers to Catholic education. As such, parents have enjoyed the stability, continuity and professionalism of educators whose tenure has reached across several generations of students and parents. Without a union, such people would surely no longer staff our schools. Without being vested in the process, without having an independent voice to represent them or their concerns, teachers of the future would not make the same long-term commitment to Catholic education. Who could blame them? Prior to our union’s formation in 1978, the annual turnover of faculty in Catholic schools ran at about 40%. Those days are sure to return. What would happen to the quality of Catholic education under those circumstances?

Bishop Martino tries to make the point that in the past not all schools were unionized. It’s true that many small elementary schools were not. And, by the same token, it was not by virtue of the union’s negotiated agreements that saw such non-union schools lose enrollment and close. But non-union schools nonetheless benefited by the larger union schools pushing the bar upwards with regard to working conditions that then became standard practice everywhere.

Without our union, Catholic education as we have come to know and appreciate would surely cease to exist. We are certain that everyone in the Diocese, save one man, who is getting bad advice, understands these consequences. It is incumbent, therefore, for the community to convince that one man to reconsider his position.”

Members of the SDACT along with members of local AFL-CIO affiliated unions will conduct “informational picketing” tomorrow morning at Holy Redeemer High School (Wilkes-Barre) from 6:45-7:30 AM, Holy Cross High School School (Scranton campus) from 7:00-7:30 AM and at St. John Neumann High School (Williamsport) from 7:15 to 7:45 AM.

Sick-out at Holy Redeemer

In response to Bishop Martino’s refusal to recognize the SDACT, classes have been cancelled for tomorrow at Holy Redeemer High School in Wilkes-Barre. The work stoppage will not affect other diocesan schools. The Catholic Watchdog will post updates on the situation as it unfolds.

In the news:
WBRE: Holy Redeemer Closed, Mass Of Teachers ‘Sick’
Times-Leader: Redeemer teachers to skip school
Times-Leader editorial: Bishop must communicate to ensure future of diocese
Citizen’s Voice: Classes at Holy Redeemer canceled today

Times-Leader: Bishop’s message anti-union

From today’s Times-Leader:

Bishop Joseph Martino’s comments in a recent letter to the Diocese of Scranton faithful echoed anti-union tactics used by some highly paid consulting firms, a Penn State labor studies professor said, and those comments arguably bolster union efforts. “It seems to me that the actions of the bishop make the case in the most powerful terms as to why these workers need a union,” said Paul F. Clark, head of the university’s department of labor studies and employment relations. 

Read the full story here.

A Message from Bishop Martino

My Dear People,

When it was announced several weeks ago that the Diocese of Scranton is implementing a new Employee Relations Program that will serve the needs of all employees in its Catholic schools, I knew that some would disagree and others, such as the group called the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers (SDACT)), would aggressively resist this plan. This association’s leaders have reasons based on self-interest for wanting to retain their role in some of our schools. Nonetheless, it must be understood that many of their claims and accusations are misleading, inaccurate or simply false. And I have been disappointed by the invective and disrespect that have been unleashed against me through public statements and quotes in the media by SDACT’s leadership and supporters both local and from Philadelphia and locales outside the Diocese of Scranton.

Therefore, as your Bishop, I am compelled to speak to you directly to address this issue, especially the claim that I am ignoring Catholic social teaching. I wish to allow no doubt that I uphold and teach the principles of Catholic doctrine on the right of people freely to choose and form unions for the purpose of collective bargaining. I know no better summary of this teaching than that found in the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (no. 68). It reads: “Among the basic rights of the human person must be counted the right of freely founding labor unions.”

I also uphold and teach, in conformity with Catholic moral teaching, that the implementation of this right, as in the case of many rights, is dependent on factors which must be considered by all concerned parties. For example, does the granting of this right negate or infringe on another party’s right? Do those demanding the fulfillment of this right also recognize the obligations that come with it?

Let me be more specific. Parents make significant financial sacrifices to obtain a Catholic education for their sons and daughters. As Bishop of the Diocese of Scranton, I have the most serious obligation to establish the requirements for Catholic education and to see that they are accomplished in our schools. If I fail to do so, the rights of parents are grievously violated.

Labor unions seek to obtain increased benefits for their members. They should also seek, however, to act in a way that does not hinder the apostolic endeavor that provides their livelihood. Prior to the decision concerning SDACT’s request for recognition, the history of this association, past contractual negotiations and its public statements were reviewed. It became clear that, despite its current pronouncements about Catholic principles of social justice and its claims to support Catholic education, the primary goal of SDACT’s leaders has always been the acquisition of the greatest financial gains and other contractual concessions it could obtain from the parishes that formerly governed the schools. The recent conduct of these same leaders has only reinforced this conclusion about their overriding interest.

Catholic education is an apostolate, and I have the duty to define and protect it. I also recognize my duty to respect the rights of all those employed by the Diocese, including the many dedicated teachers, administrators and support staff who work in our Catholic schools. So vital is the educational apostolate to the promotion of the Catholic faith, that the United States Supreme Court has exempted the Church from the requirements of the National Labor Relations Act and its provisions concerning unions in Catholic schools. Nor does the Canon Law of the Catholic Church require the recognition of unions in our schools. A union, then, is not required, essential or mandated. For example, teachers laboring in the dioceses of Harrisburg, Erie and many other dioceses throughout the nation are not unionized. While unions are appropriate in some situations, they are not the only means to achieve justice for workers. Therefore, the decision to implement the Employee Relations Program will not be revoked.

I am convinced that we will accomplish justice for all employees in our schools through the reorganization of the school system that went into effect this past fall, and the implementation of the Employee Relations Program (summarized below). We will succeed – not with contentious rhetoric and disruptions of the educational process – but rather in a non-adversarial atmosphere of meaningful dialogue and sincere collaboration with all of the dedicated employees who share in our mission.

Through this commitment we will maintain a strong Catholic identity in our schools, an identity we owe in justice to both our parents and students. We are entrusting the faith and academic formation of our young people to the teachers and others who work in our schools. That provides all the motivation we need to treat those employees as fairly as we can.

This is a critical and sensitive stage in the history of our schools. Everyone knows that the Church cannot rely on tax revenue or profits, and they should also realize that tuition costs which spiral endlessly upward will be the death of our schools. Parents and others should consider these facts carefully when asked to sympathize with SDACT’s leaders.

These references to SDACT are not a repudiation of labor unions, which have served a useful purpose in our society. The members of this community know all too well how unions have protected coal miners, factory workers and other laborers from being exploited by unscrupulous companies.

But an important distinction must be made here. Those companies were motivated by profit; The Diocese is not a company created to make a profit, and our classrooms are not coal mines. I encourage you to review the summary of benefits provided to our Catholic school employees. When SDACT’s leaders refer to the legacy of John Mitchell and of the history of the labor movement in this region, are they seriously asking you to equate the situation of our Catholic school teachers today with the deplorable conditions endured by the coal miners, steel mill workers and factory laborers of a century ago? If so, they dishonor the heritage of our ancestors who faced real oppression.

We all need to come together to support and foster affordable and accessible Catholic education in the Diocese of Scranton at this time. I look forward to seeing the Employee Relations Program as another kind of Pentecost moment throughout our Diocese. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, our Catholic school personnel, representing the vocations of clergy, religious and laity, will strengthen our fledgling Catholic school systems while addressing the just needs of our school employees.
As always, I thank you for your continued prayer and support.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, D.D., Hist. E.D.
Bishop of Scranton.

Questioning leadership: the mark of a true American

“For a bishop as God’s steward must be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled, holding fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents.” Titus 1:7-9

In the United States, we tend to have very high expectations of our leaders. When they stray from those expectations, whether in matters of personal behavior or policy, we have a right to be upset and to voice those concerns publicly. But when it comes to dealing with the church hierarchy, Americans experience a sort of culture shock. We don’t elect pastors or bishops. We don’t have a say in matters of church teaching. And in a sense, that’s a good thing. I shudder to think of what a fully democratized Roman Catholic church would look like. But what does one do when church leadership repeatedly takes action that seems contrary to its own teachings? This poses quite a problem.

We need to stop talking about parish renewal and do what we can to save or revitalize the parish and school structures we have left. I pray that Bishop Martino will come to this realization before it is too late. In the meantime, our only choice is to keep on fighting the good fight using the means that are available to us.

An open letter to parents

The following letter was released today by the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers.