Catholic school suit lifts legal lid

National Catholic Reporter, July 28, 1995 by Teresa Malcolm

A Common Pleas Court judge ruled June 20 that the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has jurisdiction over a labor dispute in the Philadelphia archdiocese, where a local Catholic teachers' union is claiming two elementary school teachers were fired for union-organizing.

The ruling is significant because it could open an avenue of appeal in labor cases to Catholic school teachers who have had no recourse to state or federal labor boards since a 1979 Supreme Court decision. That decision cited church-state separation concerns in ruling that Catholic school teachers do not have the right to petition the National Labor Relations Board. Consequently, since the early 1980s, the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has held that it, has no jurisdiction over church-related schools.

Norwood-fontbonne Academy, a private elementary school operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph, did not renew the contracts of teachers Margaret Doyle and Brian Fagan two years ago. The school said that declining enrollment was the reason for the decision. But Sr. Monica Osaben, the principal of Norwood-Fontbonne, cited in their termination letters the two teachers' "lack of cooperative spirit." Rita Schwartz, president of Local 1776 of the Association of Catholic Teachers, said teachers with less seniority were not dismissed and Doyle and Fagan had been involved in seeking a union election for the school's lay teachers.

The union filed an unfair-labor-practice petition in June 1993. The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board determined in April 1994 that it did not have the authority to decide the claim that Doyle and Fagan were fired for union-organizing. But 14 months later, Judge Bernard J. Avellino granted the union's appeal and ordered the state labor relations board to hear their case, The ruling is being appealed to Commonwealth Court.

Schwartz said the union filed 21 petitions the state labor relations board 27, asking them to run elections in 19 elementary schools in the archdiocese, in the five archdiocesan special education schools and at Nazareth Academy, a private Catholic girls' school operated by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. On July 5, the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board responded by sending notices to the schools asking them to post the union's election petition according to Pennsylvania law. Schwartz said they expect elections to be ordered soon.

Elementary school teachers in the archdiocese work under year-to-year contracts. Each spring, the parish pastor decides whether to invite a teacher back in the fall. The archdiocese has a recommended salary schedule for elementary schools but the pastors are not required to follow it. According to the schedule, an elementary teacher with a bachelor's degree and 21 years' experience will earn $24,200 the next school year, only $100 more than the starting pay of a high school teacher in the archdiocese with no experience and an undergraduate degree.

The Association of Catholic Teachers has represented high schooll lay teachers in the archdiocese since 1968, but has had difficulty organizing elementary school teachers. Unlike high school teachers, organized on a statewide basis, elementary schools have had to organize on a parish-by-parish basis, Schwartz said.

Schwartz said that throughout the 1980s, when individual teachers would come to the union, the union would approach the parish pastor, who would give the association a diocesan document to sign before elections could be held. The document waived the teachers' right to due process as well as their right to go to court if their civil rights are violated, she said. In the current cases with diocesan schools, the archdiocese will not discuss representation until the association signs this document, she said. "I can't sign away somebody's civil, rights," she stated. "These teachers shouldn't have to leave their rights at the schoolhouse door."

Herbert G. Keene Jr., a lawyer who represents Norwood-Fontbonne and the archdiocese, said a committee of pastors developed the document as a basic statement of principle that acknowledged the unique mission of Catholic schools. He said the document requires that any dispute that arises between the parish and a lay teacher be resolved on a parish level. If the dispute involves the termination or suspension of a teacher, he said, the teacher could present his or her case to an appeal board consisting of one pastor, one principal and two teachers, all from schools other than the one in the dispute, and a representative from the archdiocesan education office.

"(The union) will tell you this is a stacked deck," Keene said. "But over 50 percent of the cases taken to the appeal board have been won by the teachers."

Both sides agree that Avellino's ruling requiring the state labor board to hear the Catholic teachers' union's case could have a significant impact for teachers at church-related elementary schools.

Keene said the decision of the appellate court will be "a significant decision" regarding the labor board's long-held position on church-related schools. He called Avellino's ruling "unusual," saying he is not aware of any other ruling like it in the state of Pennsylvania. "We have every reason to believe it will be overturned," he added.