DIOCESE OF YOUNGSTOWN More teachers join Catholic schools union

Forty-two percent of the diocese's teachers have become members of the union.
By RON COLE
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The number of elementary schools in the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown with unionized teaching staffs has more than doubled in a decade, and the union's leader hopes the trend continues.
"Teachers today have more interest in having a say in how work rules are determined," said Barb Demesko, president of the 350-member Youngstown Diocesan Confederation of Teachers.
"I think they feel a need to have some input in rules that govern their profession."
Teachers at St. Rose School in Girard voted in January to join the union, the 10th diocese elementary school to affiliate with the confederation, Demesko said.
That's up from four elementary schools in 1991. The union also represents teachers in five diocese high schools.
Grant for growth: Demesko, a veteran kindergarten teacher at St. Joseph School in Austintown, said she has been contacted by four or five other schools interested in joining. She said she hopes to recruit at least one additional school annually.
The National Association of Catholic School Teachers has awarded the local affiliate a $4,000 grant to help bring more schools into the fold.
"The more schools you have, the more impact you can have," Demesko said.
Nation: Rita Schwartz, NACST president, said the growth in Youngstown mirrors a national movement.
The national union has grown by 500 members in the last two years and now represents about 5,000 parochial school teachers in 22 local unions from Boston to Portland, Ore., including Cleveland, Columbus and Pittsburgh.
"I hope it's not just a growth spurt; I hope it's a trend," she said.
Despite the gains, NACST's 5,000 members still represent less than 5 percent of the more than 100,000 Catholic school teachers nationwide.
The Youngstown affiliate's 350 members represent 42 percent of the diocese's approximately 830 teachers.
Superintendent's view: Dr. Nicholas Wolsonovich, diocese schools superintendent, said he doesn't anticipate the number of unionized teachers to change much in the years ahead.
"The diocese certainly supports the notion that employees are allowed to organize, and I don't look upon those employees any differently, quite frankly, than those who aren't organized," he added.
"You have to deal with people fairly, honestly and professionally. If you don't, regardless of if they're organized or not, you're going to have problems."
Model diocese: Teacher unions in the Youngstown diocese date to the late 1960s, and Schwartz said the diocese remains a national model of church-labor relations. She said she often uses Youngstown as an example when talking to other teachers about organizing a union.
"The Diocese of Youngstown has worked well," she said. "Bishop [James W.] Malone and now Bishop [Thomas J.] Tobin have a healthy attitude, and they let the process go," Schwartz said.
Low salaries: Demesko said she thinks low salaries is one reason the number of unionized parochial teachers is increasing in the Youngstown area.
Average starting salary for diocese elementary teachers this year is $16,352, compared to $24,174 for Youngstown public school teachers.
"There's not a person in the diocese -- whether it's the bishop, the pastors, the parents, the teachers, the administrators -- who doesn't believe these salaries are too low," Wolsonovich said.
In a pastoral letter in January, Bishop Tobin said the salaries were "unacceptably low" and that the diocese was committed to fixing the problem.
Wolsonovich said the diocese recommended that pastors at each school, union and nonunion, try to raise starting salaries to $17,000 this year, $19,000 next school year and $21,000 in 2002-03.
About half of the diocese's schools reached the recommended level this year, despite financial constraints, he said.
New blood: Demesko said another reason for the increased union interest is the emergence of a new generation of Catholic school teachers replacing retiring veteran teachers.
"The newer blood coming in ... have a fresher attitude," she said.
But she also said many teachers, even the younger ones, remain hesitant about unionizing.
She said that teaching in parochial schools traditionally was viewed as a way to serve God and the church and that many teachers feel starting a union conflicts with that purpose.
"The hierarchy of the church has groups that take care of them -- the priests have a senate, the nuns have their orders -- so I think the teachers are starting to see that you have to be proactive and that you can't just sit back," Demesko said.
Schwartz said there's "an unhealthy fear" among most Catholic school teachers about starting unions.
She said NACST will meet with the head of the U.S. Bishops Education Committee this week to talk about improving relations.
"The teachers are only trying to work in their own best interests to have some kind of say in their professional lives," she said. "They shouldn't feel guilty doing that. It doesn't make them any less committed. It doesn't make them any less Catholic."