The New York Archdiocese was forced to scrap a major charity event to raise funds for the construction industry today because of a labor dispute with the union representing Catholic high school teachers, The Post has learned.
Members of the Lay Faculty Association, who are without a contract, planned to picket the dinner that had been scheduled tonight at The Sheraton hotel.
Labor and construction leaders co-sponsoring the event with Edward Cardinal Egan – including New York AFL-CIO president Denis Hughes – canceled the 22nd annual dinner to avoid crossing a picket line.
The event was expected to raise between $500,000 and $1 million for Catholic education and other causes, sources said.
“It’s canceled; there was going to be a picket line,” said AFL-CIO spokesman Mario Cilento.
Church spokesman Joe Zwilling said it’s the first time in his 20 years with the archdiocese that he could recall a fund-raising dinner being scuttled.
“The decision was made to call off the dinner because we wanted to respect the feelings of labor leaders and the working men and women [planning to picket],” Zwilling said.
At the dinner, Egan was to have honored Terrence O’Sullivan, president of the Laborers International Union, the parent union of the Lay Faculty Association.
LFA representative Henry Kielkucki alerted union leaders that teachers would picket the event – and made it clear he didn’t want members of his parent union crossing the line.
Kielkucki said Hughes has attempted to help mediate the impasse between the church and the LFA. Kielkucki charged church officials are mistreating their teachers as they did youngsters sexually abused by priests.