from the President

 It is a privilege for me to work with teachers across the country who have made a very important decision: they want to have a say over the rules and regulations that control their daily life at school.  Without a say, they are powerless - "if you don't like it, leave" - and they are without a voice - "we know what is best for you."

 For those teachers with a number of years in teaching, doing a good job, there is something totally demeaning about having your continued employment linked to each new principal, principals who seem to get younger all the time.  There is something unjust about having no place to go with a complaint or a problem other than to the person or persons who created that problem.

 Needless to say, once the school administration discovers that their teachers are talking about representation and bargaining, an interesting phenomenon occurs.  Very quickly, the school becomes a kinder, gentler place to work.  The principal is only too happy to work with the teachers.  (At one school in the past few months three administrators resigned two weeks into the union organizing campaign.)  There may even be visits from the Superintendent to ask how he or she can help.

 Some teachers see the change in the way they are treated by a much more responsive administration as a solution to their problems.  Unfortunately, there is no quick fix.  The teachers remain powerless and voiceless.  Administrators may change, but they are still in total control.

 The only way to effect really permanent change is through union representation and a negotiated contract with due process, the final step of which is a decision by an impartial.

 Teachers need to decide whether they will be happier with instant gratification (the quick but temporary fix) or with a negotiated contract that truly empowers those whose vocation is to teach.

 Although the decision is not an easy one, the benefits of union representation are well worth the effort.  Just ask the thousands of unionized Catholic School teachers through the United States.

 What choice will you make?
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Teachers Recently Organized

Catholic school teachers continue to join the 5000 NACST members in Catholic school unions.  The following are among those teachers recently organized by or affiliated with NACST.

Ohio: Elementary school teachers in two Youngstown diocese schools joined the Youngstown Diocesan Confederation of Teachers.  Teachers at a Catholic high school in the Columbus Diocese joined others already represented by the Central Ohio Association of Catholic Educators.

Pennsylvania: Teachers at a Catholic high school and a Catholic elementary school joined other schools unionized under the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers.

New Jersey: Teachers at a Catholic high school in the Camden diocese joined the Catholic Teachers Union.  Teachers at two elementary schools in the Trenton diocese directly affiliated with NACST.  In addition, teachers at an elementary school in the Archdiocese of Newark signed their first contract as a NACST affiliate.
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Why Unions?

People with the same concerns often get together to talk and look for answers.

That's exactly what a union is all about.

American workers have been joining together in democratic unions since the end of the 18th century.

Collective bargaining remains a uniquely American success story. 

The way that unions address the most direct needs of their membership is through labor-management negotiations, sitting at a bargaining table with the employer. 

Contracts are bargained by democratically elected union representatives who come to the table as equals of their management counterparts.

Through the give and take of the bargaining process, they establish equitable wages, working conditions, job safety and job security, and a system for resolving disputes - a grievance procedure.

from AFL-CIO publications # 164 & P-189-0892-350
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Too-low Salaries Will Force School Closings, Workshop Told
Nancy Frazier O'Brien, Catholic News Service, March 13, 2001

 Catholic leaders who fear that raising the salaries of teachers in Catholic schools might cause some schools to close must face the fact that a teacher shortage will force closings if salaries do not improve, the director of personnel services for the Archdiocese of Chicago said March 12.
 Carol Fowler, who coordinates the work of 14 agencies which oversee all of the human resources functions in one of the nation's largest archdioceses, spoke on "Justice in the Workplace" at  a national gathering in Chicago.
 Fowler said the Chicago Archdiocese has about 6,000 teachers in its Catholic schools "and we pay them terribly" -- about half the salary of teachers in local public schools.
 But every time there is a serious move to fix the problem, she said, "we come up against (the question of) how many schools will we have to close."  But it is more likely that school closings will come when there are no longer teachers willing to work for half the pay, she added.
 "We're not going to survive unless we do something about it," Fowler said.
 Her workshop presentation focused on issues of compensation and benefits for church employees, and opened with a quote from Pope John Paul II's "Laborem Exercens" that said "a just wage is the concrete means of verifying the justice of the whole economic system"
 "It seems to me that what applies to the world should also apply to the church," Fowler said.
 She also cited canons of the Code of Canon Law stipulating that "administrators of goods" in the church "are to observe meticulously the civil law pertaining to labor and social policy" and to "pay employees a just and decent wage so that they may provide appropriately for their needs and those of their family."
 And even though the church is exempt from certain labor laws - such as unemployment compensation and the Family and Medical Leave Act - in some jurisdictions, Fowler said she did not always think it was just for the church as employer to take those exemptions.
 Pension plans vary widely from diocese to diocese, but many still operate on the outdated assumption that female employees will not be dependent on their own pensions but are "second-income women" whose retirement will be funded mainly by their husbands' pension plans, Fowler said.
 Asked about the likelihood that pension plans could become portable from one diocese to another, Fowler said, "Dioceses do not want to give up control of millions of dollars in pension plans."
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Highlights of the NACST Organizing Seasons

Spring 2000 - Leadership Conference for Local Presidents

Summer 2000 - Formation of NACST Affiliate - St. Denis Teachers Association

Fall 2000 - NACST Officers meet with teachers at In-Service Programs in Grand Rapids, Indianapolis and Dallas
 - NACST Bishops' Report Card Rally in Washington, D.C.

Winter 2000 - Formation of NACST affiliate - St. Rose Teachers Association [Belmar NJ]
 - Teachers at St. Rose [Girard OH] join YDCT
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Editorial: NACST Members & Organizing

     NACST members involved in organizing locals easily recall the numerous difficulties faced when locals and affiliates organized.  Fears of losing employment, intimidation from school administrators and the frustration involved in working in systems which treated them as servants are not soon forgotten.  Members also recall the exhilaration when they united as professional units dealing with diocesan and local school administrators.
     Organizing has been ongoing for more than a quarter century in Catholic schools.  The national Catholic school union movement has received praise from U.S. Church luminaries such as Msgr. George Higgins, Rev. Richard McBrien and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton.
     Catholic school teachers have received praise from nearly every Ordinary in which we work.
     If not for the work of Catholic school unions, many of those same teachers would have left the schools and systems which produce graduates who are exceptional for their academic achievements and personal integrity.

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