Union is mum on next moves

Admitting the effort to have parents withhold contributions to church collection baskets has garnered mixed results, officials of the union seeking to represent Catholic school teachers met to determine a next step, but chose to keep it secret.

The Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers has steadily increased efforts to reverse its rejection as bargaining agent for area teachers, including an open letter to parents asking them to show support by refusing to donate to their church Sunday collections. The union suggested, instead, that parents send the money to two national Catholic charities.

Asked if the public appeal had worked, Association President Michael Milz Monday conceded, “We’ll never know,” but said the union has been hearing mixed responses from the faithful.

“Some are reluctant to do it. They say their priest had nothing to do with the decision (to reject unionization) and that they don’t want to hurt their church,” said Milz, adding he has heard others did withhold contributions.

That echoed the mixed comments from callers to The Times Leader. While some have agreed with the idea of withholding money to show union support, others have said the union went too far, and predicted the call to stop donating to church collections could backfire.

Milz, however, has repeatedly said the union will not give up. He remains convinced that the majority of teachers would vote for unionization if given the chance via secret ballot. The diocese has rejected that idea, insisting the newly implemented “Employee Relations Program” will give fair representation for all employees in the school system.

Milz said more than 200 teachers attended a gathering in Pittston Township on Sunday that included a closed-door session to decide on the next course of action.

“We made a decision,” Milz said, “but it’s not for public consumption yet.” He declined to give a range of options considered, other than to repeat earlier comments that work stoppage of sometime is one possibility.

The union represented teachers at several local schools until Bishop Joseph Martino restructured the entire system, eliminating the small school boards the union had negotiated with and creating four regional boards instead. Bishop Joseph Martino recently issued a letter criticizing union officials and insisting the rejection of unionization will not be reversed.

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