Teachers, bishop at odds over proposed union - Bishop James T. McHugh; Camden, NJ, Catholic school teachers

National Catholic Reporter, Sept 23, 1994 by William Bole

While serving as the ranking American on the Vatican's delegation to the population summit in Cairo, Egypt, Bishop James T. McHugh of Camden, N.J., had to contend with a more parochial matter -- and uprising by Catholic school teachers in his own diocese.

The bishop and his aides communicated by fax between Cairo and Camden as teachers at 18 Catholic elementary schools took the diocese to civil court for allegedly seeking to block a union in the schools. In a statement released by the diocese, McHugh vowed to "defend our position all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary."

At the U.N. Conference on Population and Development, McHugh, head of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Prolife Activities, stepped onto the world stage to defend church teaching on the rights of the unborn and argue the Vatican's case against abortion as a method of family planning. Meanwhile, in his own diocese, school teachers charged that the bishop has made a mockery of Catholic social teaching in support of the right to organize and bargain collectively.

"It's incomprehensible," said Chris Ehrmann, a religion teacher and spokesman for the South Jersey Catholic School Teachers Organization, SCTO, which filed the suit on behalf of the grade school teachers. Ehrmann sees a contradiction between Catholic social doctrine and McHugh's alleged anti-union practices.

In a separate dispute, 180 lay high school teachers went on strike Sept. 12, charging that proposed contract changes would give McHugh absolute authority in dismissing teachers regardless of ability or tenure.

According to Catholic News Service, the diocesan proposal would add a clause saying the union must recognize the bishop's right to make sure "the policies of the Diocese of Camden as stated by the bishop" are carried out.

McHugh, however, denies he is antiunion, while at the same time voicing unease with the idea of a union in Catholic elementary schools. In a letter sent to Catholic school parents earlier his month, McHugh worried that a labor union might undermine the "Catholic character" of the schools.

The fight has spilled into the courts after a year of organizing efforts by SCTO. For the past 10 years, the union has represented lay teachers at the diocese's eight high schools. But McHugh put up a fight when the organization tried to move to the grade schools.

The bishop has insisted that SCTO sign a "minimum standards" agreement before he allows union elections. The union claims the agreement would deny teachers internationally recognized labor rights, including due process. Ehrmann said SCTO decided to go to court rather than call a strike at the beginning of the school year.

This year, the starting salary for teachers in the diocese's 63 elementary schools is $16,700 a year. Salaries come up to $22,600 a year for those who have taught for 20 years or longer in the schools.

According to the National Educational Association, the average salary nationally in 1990-91 for beginning teachers was $14,514 and the average for the highest-paid teachers was $22,175.

In his letter to parents, McHugh said the diocese is committed to gradually higher pay, but warned that a union would make "demands for extraordinary salary increases ... well beyond the tuition costs that parents are able to manage and that the parishes can subsidize."

The union, however, says the major issue is job security, not money. According to Ehrmann, teachers are fearful that as they climb up the pay ladder they will be let go by pastors, who have final authority over the parish schools. For its part, the diocese says it has not asked pastors to do this.

In Camden's Catholic elementary schools, as in other nonunion settings, the teachers are legally considered "employees at will." This means the employer -- in this case, the pastor -- can dismiss a teacher at any time for any reason. The minimum standards agreement pushed by the diocese would basically continue that arrangement if a union forms.

The six-page document is identical in key parts to a "statement of principles" drawn up by the Philadelphia archdiocese. The wording has met with rejection in Philadelphia as it has across the Delaware River in Camden. In both places, elementary school teachers remain without a union.

Rita C. Schwartz, executive vice president of the National Association of Catholic School Teachers, said teachers have encountered resistance to unionism in other Catholic dioceses. But she added that outside of Philadelphia and Camden, she knows of no other diocese that has demanded such an agreement as a condition of unionization.

"The most disgusting thing about it is that they're saying to teachers, 'You have to sign away your rights before we recognize your association,'" said Schwartz, who also serves as president of Philadelphia's Association of Catholic Teachers. The national association, based in Philadelphia, has 5,000 members nationwide.

"They're pushing this document because they don't want unions in Catholic schools and they know that no union would sign it," Schwartz said. "The church is very good at championing the rights of workers in places like Poland. But it is patently anti-union when it comes to its own employees."