Catholic Teachers' Union Fight for Recognition
Story summary:
With their decision to not grant recognition to the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers, a union chosen to represent its lay teachers in each of its local school systems, diocesan officials have placed the viability of Catholic education in our region in extreme jeopardy. In lying to their teachers, and in taking a position that is contrary to every church pronouncement on the rights of working people, the diocese is risking its moral standing, and thus the credibility to continue to teach the children in its schools, and to instruct the parishioners in its churches about how one leads a Catholic-Christian life in today’s world. Catholic school teachers are saddened and infuriated by the diocese’s actions. There is a pervasive feeling that their support for and loyalty to Catholic education has been rewarded with nothing short of betrayal by those responsible for the schools. Throughout a year of uncertainty when the diocese’s plan for school restructuring was drawing criticism from nearly every quarter of the Catholic community, only the diocese’s teachers and their union steadfastly supported the plan.
Catholic Teachers' Union Fight for Recognition
The most shocking aspect of the diocese’s position on union representation is that it represents a complete abandonment of the social justice teachings of the Catholic Church, and contradicts the published school policies that ostensibly govern the system right now. The alternative to unionization that they suggest is nothing more than a thinly veiled “company union.” This shabby attempt to trick the public is something that would make even Wal-Mart blush.
Where does all of this leave the diocese’s lay teachers? We must stand up for what we know is right and must forcefully insist that our rights be preserved, even if that means a disruption of the educational process. How could we face our students otherwise? How could we tell them, as we now do in our history and theology classes, that we were wrong to say that they should be proud of their church and its support of workers’ rights and social justice, particularly the role it has played in our own region’s history?
