Catholic teachers' union president and former teacher Michael Milz says he has met with Monsignor Joseph Bambera, who was appointed to handle day-to-day operations of the Scranton diocese after Bishop Joseph Martino resigned in August.
"It was very encouraging," Milz said of his meeting with Bambera, the Times-Leader reports.
"He's not part of the old regime, he wasn't part of the decision-making process" that led to the union dispute, which resulted in informational pickets, public rallies, schools shut down for a day by teacher "sick outs," and one episode of students walking out of classes to show support for the union.
Milz said he sent a letter requesting a meeting as soon as administrator Cardinal Justin Rigali announced that Bambera would be his local representative. Bambera responded quickly, and the only reason the meeting didn't occur sooner was logistics. Nothing specific came out of the meeting, but Milz said that was no surprise.
"I knew going in that (Bambera) couldn't make any decisions, and that he would be a conduit between us and Cardinal Rigali."
The dispute began after the diocese closed dozens of schools in 2007 and completely restructured the system, replacing local school boards and parish councils with four regional boards.
The Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic School Teachers had represented some teachers under the old system and asked to represent them under the new setup, but the request was rejected in favor of an "Employee Relations Program" set up by the diocese.
After multiple failed attempts to reverse that decision, the union got support from state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, who introduced a bill in May, 2008 that would give Catholic School Teachers protection under the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act.
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Diocese, teacher rep meet (Times-Leader)
LINKS
Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic School Teachers