Union backers picket at diocese chancery

SCRANTON – About 100 supporters paced in a long, thin oval in front of the Diocese of Scranton Chancery building beginning at 3 p.m. Monday, the opening of what the union promises will be a daily picket. They will continue until teachers get a chance to vote on unionization or the school year ends.

The Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers launched the picket as part of an ongoing effort to persuade Bishop Joseph Martino to reverse the rejection of unionization in the newly restructured school system. Martino’s office has issued repeated statements insisting the union is wasting its time and that the decision is final and irrevocable.

The diocese did not post a press release about Monday’s picketing on its Web site.

Association President Michael Milz has called that stance unacceptable and promised to fight until it is reversed. Milz said the union has scheduled teams of volunteers to picket outside the chancery every weekday after school. When the teams come from nearby schools, the picketing will start around 3 p.m. When they come from farther away in the 11-county diocese they will start about an hour later.

Milz said the daily picket will last until the end of the school year in June, and that the union is planning other activities during the summer if necessary.

The local association, he said, hopes to join a group of unionized Catholic teachers in Yonkers, N.Y., which has been fighting for a new contract. They intend to stage a demonstration along Pope Benedict XVI’s route as he visits St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers on Saturday.

The local association is working on a massive union rally involving the AFL-CIO and supporters from across the state, but Milz said it is still in the planning stages with no set date or location.

The association represented teachers in many local schools before Martino oversaw a diocese-wide restructuring last year. The smaller parish and local school boards that had negotiated with the union were replaced with four regional school boards, three of which rejected requests for unionization in January.

The diocese has implemented an employee relations program it insists will represent all workers fairly.

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