A day after filing an unfair-labor-practice charge against the Archdiocese of New York, the city’s 3,400-member Federation of Catholic Teachers is planning to take their grievances to the street.
Educators at 10 area Catholic schools are expected to strike today over a months-long stall in contract talks with the archdiocese over the issue of health care.
The teachers haven’t had a contract since August.
Union president Mary Ann Perry was trying to bring an alternative health-care plan to the negotiating table, but said the archdiocese, headed by Edward Cardinal Egan , has been reluctant to provide pricing data.
“This is now April and we can’t provide a health-care plan and provide our people a contract unless we know what the cost is,” Perry said.
The alleged withholding of data was the spark for yesterday’s filing with the state’s Employment Relations Board.
Perry said the archdiocese was asking members to pay a larger share of the health-care premium than teachers with an average salary of $43,000 could afford.
The city schools affected will be, on Staten Island, St. Clare, St. Charles and Our Lady Star of the Sea; in The Bronx, St. Athanasius; and in Manhattan, St. Jean Baptiste, Transfiguration and Our Lady Queen of Angels.