Strike planned at three N.J. Catholic high schools

Teachers at three Catholic schools in South Jersey will go on strike Monday morning, after their union and the Camden diocese were unable to reach a contract agreement.

"We thought it best that we just do it and do it now," Bill Blumenstein, president of the Catholic Teachers Union, said yesterday. "Options were to wait a week, but ultimately we believe the diocese is unwilling to sit down and negotiate a contract."

Teachers at Camden Catholic High School in Cherry Hill, Paul VI High School in Haddon Township, and Holy Spirit High School in Absecon will be picketing Monday, Blumenstein said.

All three schools will be open as scheduled, said a diocese spokesman.

"They're going to be working over the weekend to determine the number of temporary teachers they need to bring in to make sure classes continue next week," said spokesman Andrew Walton. "This announcement did not come as a surprise."

Negotiations between the union and the diocese came to a standstill Wednesday night over pay raises and health benefits at four of the diocese's seven high schools. The strike will not affect Sacred Heart High School in Vineland, according to the union.

The diocese's proposal of an average 5.2 percent pay increase over the next two years, the same as teachers received in their old four-year contract, and a new health-benefits plan that would require a contribution from newly hired teachers was rejected by union officials.

"We're a union. We're not about to have some people pay for something the rest of us get for free," Blumenstein said. "At one school the tuition increased 14 percent. If you're going to argue the economy, how do you raise the tuition that much."

The union said it has requested a 9 percent pay increase, over two years, with no teacher health-benefit contribution.

"We could negotiate that a little, but they don't want to change the scale at all," Blumenstein said.

The high schools have been running a deficit for a number of years and owe the diocese $5.6 million, Walton said.

"What they're asking for is so much higher than the average U.S. worker is getting during these difficult economic times," he said. "The balance is being able to provide a fair and just wage, which we are doing, with the reality school families bear the school costs."