NWS STRIKE

Teachers at Our Lady Star of the Sea School, Hugunot, are joined by parents as they picket outside the school Monday.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Catholic school teachers continued their series of one-day strikes Monday, with teachers walking the picket line at one of the borough's largest schools, Our Lady Star of the Sea in Huguenot.

This time the 20 tenured teachers were joined by more than a dozen parents, as they carried signs reading: "Unfair Labor Practice Strike." A few carried signs reading: "Threatening to close our schools is an unfair labor practice" as they walked along Amboy Road near Huguenot Avenue. Cars on Amboy Road honked their horns in support.

"I support the teachers," said parent Maria Ciccia, who has three children in the school. "These teachers are wonderful and very dedicated to the school and the children they teach. This is sad; I wish they would get a fair wage."

The school remained open, with classes covered by non-tenured teachers -- who were advised by the union to come in to avoid reprisals -- as well as administrators and staff.

Teachers at Sacred Heart School, West Brighton; Our Lady Help of Christians in Tottenville, and St. Charles School, Oakwood, walked out on May 5, while teachers at Our Lady Queen of Peace School, New Dorp, and high school teachers at Notre Dame Academy, Grymes Hill, staged a similar strike on May 1.

UNION CLAIMS 'UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES'

The Federation of Catholic Teachers (FCT), the union based in New Springville that represents more than 2,600 lay teachers in nearly 150 schools from Staten Island to Poughkeepsie, has filed unfair labor practices against the New York Archdiocese's Association of Catholic Schools. The ACS is the bargaining arm of the archdiocese.

The union said teachers were initially offered a 1-percent wage increase, but were later told that the archdiocese would have to close up to 10 more schools per year if they accepted it.

Dr. Timothy McNiff, superintendent of schools for the archdiocese, distributed two separate letters directly to teachers and parents, saying more schools would have to close if the teachers received even a very small wage increase. Teachers have been working without a contract since September.

FCT president Julia Pignataro said the letters from McNiff are a violation of state labor laws governing collective bargaining.

In his second letter, dated May 1, McNiff said an audit conducted by the accounting firm of KMPG found the school system in the 10-county archdiocese had a $26 million deficit.

Two years ago, the archdiocese re-organized schools into a regional system, which involved painful closures of schools.

Six Staten Island schools were closed in the process and a seventh was merged with another. After its last round of school closures in 2013, the archdiocese vowed it was through, and schools were in the black. As part of its reorganization into a regional system, each parish is now assessed a "school tax" that is supposed to go toward supporting schools in the region.