‘2-faced’ on union
Say pro-labor pol shifts as school prez
members, a current teacher and the president of the Federation of Catholic Teachers.
“She’s doing everything in her power to not let this union go through,” said Margaret DeRosa, 58, a computer teacher who has worked at La Salle for 15 years.
“She stands in the meeting and told us we’re one-tenth of the way through negotiations. Onetenth? We’re going into our third year without a raise. She’s been stalling the contract, so we haven’t had a raise for two full years,” DeRosa said.
Frank, who taught at the school for 20 years before leaving, said Guerriero didn’t act “like a true Christian” and used intimidation to get her way
“Her leadership style is of a bully. She corners you, she tries to get you one-on-one, and she tries to break you down,” he said.
Frank, a father of three, said he hated to leave La Salle. “It destroyed me. I still get choked up about it, because I loved the place,” he said.
Julia Pignataro, president of the Federation of Catholic Teachers, said Guerriero’s attempts to prevent the unionization of the staff proved her to be anti-labor at heart.
“She’s always trying to say, ‘Oh, I’m all for this, this is wonderful,’ and yet she targets the teachers who are union,” Pignataro said.
Many other members of the faculty and board of trustees sing Guerriero’s praises and describe her as a dedicated and passionate leader.
Guerriero, a former adjunct professor at Columbia Teachers College who has an 8-year-old daughter, told The News her priority is making the school topnotch — and she doesn’t mind if the teachers join a union.
“The soft bigotry of low expectations doesn’t exist at a place like La Salle anymore. You are expected to be the best,” she said.
Of the teachers’ push to unionize after she arrived, Guerriero blames the “tsunami of change” she brought with her.
“It was dramatic and continues to be dramatic. I’m new, I’m intense, there was a new strategic plan coming into place,” she said.
Since the departure of the 11 senior faculty at La Salle, new teachers have come in and sought to roll back the successful union vote.
Recent hires decided to sign a decertification petition, which could reverse the staff’s earlier vote to unionize. The petition is wending its way through the state Public Employment Relations Board.
“I had nothing to do with the decertification process,” Guerriero said.