Catholic teachers in Philadelphia on strike

It's for the children. Wait, that won't work, since the kids are missing school. It's for the public good. Ummm... for the good of the Church? Right?

Photo: Catholic teachers picketing students' first day of school in Philadelphia today. If it's not about the money... What a disgrace.

Catholic News Agency:

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput may become involved in ending a Catholic high school teacher's strike, though the archdiocese says he will not take any action until after his installation.

“I'm not averse at all to becoming involved personally, in a direct way, if that's good for our schools and good for our teachers," the recently-appointed archbishop told CBS 3 reporter Pat Ciarrocchi. Shortly after his arrival in the city, unionized Catholic high school teachers rejected a contract offer and announced they were on strike as of Sept. 6.

But the archdiocese's Associate Director of Communications Kenneth Gavin told CNA that if Archbishop Chaput does intervene, it would not occur until after his Sept. 8 installation [today]. The teachers' union says it will not picket the installation [how considerate of them] – expected to draw up to 1,500 guests, including 700 cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, and seminarians – out of respect for the archbishop [and has nothing to do with the bad press that Catholic teachers picketing a Catholic archbishop would get, right?].

Archdiocesan Communications Specialist Meredith Wilson said that negotiations with the teachers would begin the next day, even though church officials “wanted them to start today.” The meetings are slated to last through Sept. 12, with a break on Saturday [what about Sunday?].

As of Sept. 6, the archdiocese and its unionized high school teachers had failed to agree not only on a future contract, but also on the matter of what had caused the strike.

Read the rest of the article here. Read the Archdiocese's letter to parents here. Archbishop Chaput certainly has his work cut out for him.

I would ask why there is a Catholic teachers' union, but perhaps that answer is a little too obvious.