Contents:
Why Unions?
Catholic School Teachers: the How and Why of Organizing
NACST 2005 Leadership Conference
From the NACST President: The Right to Organize
St. Denis Contract Settlement
Image of Ignorance of Catholic Church
From the Editor: Why NACST?
Previous Issues
 

NACST 2005 Leadership Conference

Presidents from 16 NACST affiliated locals met February 18-21,2005 for a Presidents' Roundtable leadership conference on Employee Benefits.  The conference was sponsored by NACST to give local presidents information about the status of medical and retirement benefits in the current labor market.

Attorney Ben Eisner led the conference.  Mr. Eisner is a shareholder in the Philadelphia firm of Spear, Wilderman.  He represents labor organizations and individuals in litigation and arbitration and provides general employment-related counseling.  He works extensively with employee benefit plans.

Eisner noted that employee benefit plans are central to the American employment relationship.  In the history of U.S. labor relations benefits are an integral part of the compensation package earned by employees, not merely an add-on by employers.

Concerning pension programs, there have traditionally been three legs on which individuals rely for fiscal security in retirement: social security, defined pension plans and personal savings.  While all three factors were apparent 40 years ago, employers today have begun to move away from defined pension plans, shifting the burden to personal savings [such as 401(k) and 403(b) accounts].

Eisner noted that medical costs are expected to rise nationally an average of  12 to 15 percent a year for the next 5 years.

In health care, employers want three things: lower cost, predictable costs, and the ability to provide competitive benefits.

Even with the increasing use of managed care plans, it is unclear that any of these programs will accomplish the employers' goals.

Consequently, it is one task of local unions to work with employers to guarantee complete benefit coverages for union members.

Eisner supplied information about programs gaining acceptance with labor, so that unions will, in the future, continue to provide the most comprehensive benefits packages for members.

Image of Ignorance of Catholic Church
from an October 24, 2005 Newsday Commentary by Jimmy Breslin

          At the beginning of the Alfred Smith dinner on Thursday night, an event for Catholics with money and the attitude of money, which means Al Smith wouldn't have been allowed in the door, the cardinal of New York, Edward Egan, strode imperiously into the Waldorf-Astoria towers entrance.
          Mary Ann Perry reports that she attempted to give the cardinal a flier for Catholic teachers, who were picketing across the street.
          Ms. Perry reports, and others report seeing the same thing, that the cardinal walked by her with a cold glance.  He was going upstairs, where he would pose gloriously in a red cape and I guess his big ring.
          I am unsure of the details because I was across Park Avenue with the crowd of teachers.  We were in these metal pens that the police use in an attempt to eliminate free expression by the nonrich.  In this case, the pens were erected on behalf of the cardinal and his Catholic Church.
          The leaflet on Thursday night that the cardinal looked upon with disdain said that the teachers were being offered a 1 percent pay raise.  As nearly all the teachers earn $35,000 or thereabouts, the raise doesn't do much for them.  The rest of the offer from the cardinal was health care payment adjustments that would cost a teacher $2,400 a year.
          In the Waldorf kitchen a Local 6 union guy washing dishes from the dinner gets $34,000 a year, with full medical benefits for themselves and family, and a pension of $1,250 a month.
          Over in the pens, Gertrude Zagarella, 70, said she had been teaching Catholic schoolchildren for 49 years and she now ears $43,973.
          "Why do you stay?" I asked her.
          "Love.  But they say they have no money to pay us."
          A woman next to her, Edwina Dunne, 73, said, "I taught 30 years.  I get a pension of $583 a month."
          On the dark street across from the Waldorf [Zagarella] waved her union placard.

Contract Settlement

          St. Denis Teachers Association, the NACST affiliate in Manasquan NJ, signed its second contract March 10, 2005.
          The local represents elementary school teachers who have been unionized since 1998.
          In the new four year contract, there were no teacher givebacks.
          The salary increases are 7% a year for the first two years and 6.5% a year for the final two years of the new agreement.

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From the NACST President
THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE: A GIVEN OR A GAME?

          The National Association of Catholic School Teachers, now in its 27th year, continues to assist elementary and secondary lay teachers who want to be empowered, who want to have a say over the conditions under which they work.  Keep in mind that salary and benefits, although vital, are not the only reasons teachers seek to form a union.  A negotiated contract contains sections covering every aspect of a teacher's work life - duties and assignments, transfers, seniority, sick, personal and child bearing leaves, tenure and retirement - to name some of the major areas.  However, the most  important article in any contract is the one which delineates due process or the grievance procedure.  If there is no mechanism for resolution of disputes by a neutral party, there is no real contract.
          Catholic school teachers are often without a representative voice and a negotiated contract because their employers openly fight any attempts by these teachers to secure recognition and collective bargaining.  These teachers are presented with the ever-popular JUST TRY TO START A UNION game.  The game was created by various dioceses throughout the country and comes complete with a set of rules which are interchangeable.  The game board is a large circle with blocks numbering from 1 to 100.  Every tenth block contains a GOLDEN RULE the teachers must follow (Those who have the gold, rule).  Strangely enough, each rule contradicts the one previously landed-upon.  In the center of the board is a pack of YOU CAN'T START A UNION, BECAUSE ... cards.  These cards contain the usual assortment of excuses put forth by diocesan officials.  When you select an especially paternalistic one, you get an extra turn.  Each time teachers get close to winning the game by landing on Square 100, YOU ARE RECOGNIZED, they are required to select a SOCIAL INJUSTICE card.  Each card contains the same wording, "You have displeased the Bishop.  Return to Square One."
          The U.S. Bishops, in their Economic Pastoral, state that "All the moral principles that govern the just operation of any economic endeavor apply to the church and its agencies and institutions; indeed, the Church should be exemplary."  Although this is promulgated on paper, it is, unfortunately, light years from the reality in a number of dioceses and archdioceses.
          What is it about "All Church institutions must also fully recognize the rights of employees to organize and bargain collectively with the institution through whatever association or organization they freely choose," that a number of bishops do not understand?
          What is the force behind the U.S. Bishops' Economic Pastoral when it warns employers that "No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself"?  Is it "do as I say, not as I do"?
          For teachers who want to end the organizing games and experience true partnership in the educational enterprise with their employer through a recognized teacher association, the National Association of Catholic School Teachers pledges its support and its assistance.  Working with you, we'll do whatever it takes for the Church's social justice teachings to become the reality.
          Let NACST know how we can be of help.

From the Editor: Why NACST?

• Today 163,004 U.S. Catholic school teachers are the lay employees who make  up 94% of U.S. Catholic elementary and secondary school faculties.
• For more than 110 years the Church's social justice teaching has asserted, affirmed and re-affirmed these teachers' right to unionize and bargain collectively.
• For more than 26 years, the National Association of Catholic School Teachers has been the umbrella organization for over 20 local unions.
• NACST offers local Catholic school teacher unions service - organizing grants, negotiation workshops, leadership conferences, a legal defense fund and information sharing with other locals throughout the nation.
• NACST offers local Catholic school teacher unions experience - literally scores of contracts for the past 26 years as well as numerous grievance and arbitration hearings, worked out by the locals with NACST assistance.
• NACST offers local Catholic school teacher unions understanding of our Church and schools' mission - to put into practice the gospel values of justice in all its facets, NACST members live the Church's teaching in our schools and unions.
• NACST has the service, experience and mission to help Catholic school teachers to unionize.
• Use NACST.

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Why Unions?
from AFL-CIO publication # 164 & P-189-0892-350

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.
 

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Catholic School Teachers:
Why Unionize?
keep good teachers in Catholic schools by:
     •  putting the Church's labor teaching into practice
     •  having a voice in working conditions, salaries, and benefits
     •  fairly resolving legitimate disputes
     •  treating teachers with respect & professionalism

Catholic School Teachers:
How Can We Unionize?
     •  by talking to your colleagues at school
     •  by becoming informed of locals in your area
     •  by emailing NACST

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