Employees unionize at four Texas
parishes
By MARGOT PATTERSON
Employees of four Catholic parishes in the diocese of Brownsville,
Texas, have signed union contracts with their pastors in what is said to be the
first instance in the United States of parish unionizing.
The parish employees are represented by United Farm Workers, which
is providing them with a union pension plan and a five-year contract that
provides for a grievance procedure in cases of disputes between the employer
and an employee. The employees sought unionization following the termination of
an overfunded diocesan pension plan and what the UFW described as a mass
dismissal of parish staff at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in McAllen, Texas, by a
newly assigned priest. Because churches do not pay unemployment taxes, fired
staff cannot obtain unemployment benefits.
Ann Cass, a pastoral associate at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in
McAllen, said she had contacted United Farm Workers following Bishop Raymundo
Peñas decision in 2000 to terminate a defined benefit pension plan
and to offer a 403(b) plan in its place. While a 403(b) plan can be
advantageous to younger workers, Cass said the defined benefit pension plan
offers more benefits to older workers and to low-wage workers. Cass, 55, said
under the old plan she would have received an annual pension of $10,500 upon
retirement, while under the new plan she would receive only $3,030. Cass said
the bishops accountant refused to consider offering alternatives to the
new 403(b) plan, despite requests to do so.
Cass said she became further frustrated when she heard of mass
layoffs at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Once I heard that all these people got fired for absolutely
no reason at all, that was the straw that broke the camels back.
Were working to provide justice in the area, and we dont even have
it here in the church. The cook had been there for 30 years. She had no
unemployment [compensation], Cass said.
The decision to liquidate the overfunded defined benefit pension
fund and pay out the proceeds also made some employees unhappy because payments
were made based on the age of the worker rather than length of service. For
instance, a 38-year-old worker who had worked for the diocese 13 years got
$1,692 from the payout while a 65-year-old employee with 12 years service
got $21,000, said United Farm Workers organizer Rebecca Flores. She added that
a meeting with members of the chancery staff did not answer questions she and
others had about why employees never received an annual report on the pension
plan, and why and how the overfunding had occurred.
Bishop Peña was on vacation and could not be reached for
comment, but Fr. Robert Maher, vicar general of the diocese, took issue with
some of the comments that had surfaced in the media.
The complaint that the media has reported here is that the
laity wasnt consulted, Maher said. That isnt true. It
was consultation with lay employees that led the bishop to decide on a new
pension plan. The bishop acted on the best interests of employees, to give them
a better plan with better retirement income than the old plan
allowed.
Maher said after speaking with the laity the bishop had consulted
with eight experts about changing the plan. All independently assured him that
the plan he eventually adopted was superior.
I might add that the old pension plan closure did not spark
any resentment or revolt that I heard of. All the upset came when employees
discovered how little was the amount of benefits they had accumulated in their
pension plan, and thats what generated a lot of resentment. Those
employees should realize how much more upset they would have been if the bishop
had done nothing and they had discovered on the day of their retirement how
little they would have had to live on, Maher said.
The vicar general also said reports of a mass dismissal of parish
staff at Our Lady of Perpetual Help were untrue. Two out of seven employees
were dismissed, he said. "Its a rush to judgment that an injustice
occurred," Maher added.
Flores described the negotiations with the four pastors who signed
union contracts on behalf of their parishes as very amicable.
Contracts were signed with Holy Spirit Catholic Parish and St. Joseph the
Worker in McAllen, St. Joseph the Worker in San Carlos, and Sacred Heart
Catholic Parish in Hidalgo.
Fr. Jerry Frank, pastor at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, said he
had signed the union contract willingly. It was the only thing I could do
to have a voice. I did it in order to protect our workers and hopefully open
the way for other pastors and other parishes because I think our workers at
this time in the diocese need protection, Frank said.
Flores said early communication between the United Farm Workers
and Peña, in which the bishop said employment issues should be handled
between pastors and employees, suggested he was not opposed to the union
contracts. However, after the four contracts were signed, Peña sent
letters to all the pastors in the diocese saying no future contracts should be
signed without his approval.
Cass pointed out there is a long history of unionization of
Catholic teachers, hospital staff and cemetery workers.
I think people understand that even though we work for the
church we still have a right to be treated with fairness and justice,
Cass said. The bishops themselves said the institutional church should be
a model for the marketplace. Thats all were really asking. We want
a say-so in decisions that are going to affect us.
Margot Patterson is NCR senior writer. Her e-mail
address is mpatterson@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, July 19,
2002
|