Teachers Strike at 10 Catholic Schools

By JOHN ELIGON

NYT, 4/5/08

Nearly 200 teachers at 10 Catholic schools throughout the Archdiocese of New York went on strike Friday, saying that the archdiocese has hindered their efforts to obtain a new health insurance plan, said Mary-Ann Perry, the president of the Federation of Catholic Teachers, a union.

The strike could continue next week, Ms. Perry said, if the archdiocese does not give the teachers the information they need to obtain a new health care plan through Local 153, the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

A spokesman for the archdiocese criticized the strike, saying it was merely a bargaining chip on the part of the Catholic teachers’ union and that the archdiocese had already handed over a stack of documents that stood about a foot high.

At one school affected by the strike Friday, Our Lady Queen of Angels elementary school in East Harlem, some students watched videos and others played games.

The archdiocese and the union began negotiating a new contract last May. The contract expired on Aug. 31 without a new deal. In November, the archdiocese made a final offer. The deal included an increased premium for health insurance that the union said was too high, so a few weeks later it began seeking a new health care plan from an outside group, Ms. Perry said.

That group agreed to do a feasibility study, Ms. Perry said, but told the union it needed to provide information from its previous plan. While the archdiocese has provided a lot of information, Ms. Perry said, it has yet to turn over one of the most vital pieces: the actual cost of running the plan, known as the utilization cost, from 2007. The union has repeatedly asked for these figures since last December, Ms. Perry said, but the archdiocese has provided years-old information.

“The cost of health care makes it difficult for people to make ends meet,” Ms. Perry said. “This strike is an unfair labor practice strike in order to get the information.”

But Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the archdiocese was preparing those documents and had been planning on turning them over to the union within the next few days.

“First, we have to wait for all the figures to come in,” Mr. Zwilling said. “Then, we have to break them out for 217 schools, 3,200 teachers. It takes time.

“They’re just using this tactic to try and waste time, I think, rather than coming to an agreement. This is not going to improve the offer one bit. The only thing they’ve done is cost themselves a day’s pay.”