Look for the Union Label!
Posted on 11/07/2004 4:04:29 PM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
TORONTO - They work for God, but say workplace conditions too often are wretched. A group of United Church clergy in Ontario and British Columbia, therefore, have taken the first steps toward unionizing the 4,000 pastors in Canada's largest Protestant denomination.
Citing psychological and physical abuse, bad working conditions, sweatshop wages and a corporate church that responds to their problems inadequately, a group of 30 clerics in Ontario and a similar number on the West Coast have invited unions to step in and organize the church.
Physical abuse has become such a problem for clergy that in England, the giant Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union, which represents 1,500 Anglican priests and a few rabbis, has made available tae kwon do martial arts defense courses rather than insist its members turn the other cheek.
"People are sometimes angry at God or religion or at life, and the clergyperson represents that," said the Rev. David Galston, pastor of Eternal Spring United Church in Hamilton and one of the leaders of the unionization movement.
In Ontario, the Canadian Auto Workers greeted the clergy with open arms.
"I didn't have any hesitation when it was brought to my attention," said Mike Shields, the union's national director of organizing. "They're where we're at" on social justice issues.
But in union headquarters, after the first shiver of excitement at the prospect of organizing a church, the idea sunk in that the union's closeness with the United Church's national administration could be awkward at the negotiating table.
The issue does not appear to upset the church, which learned details last week of the move to organize its clergy.
The Rev. Jim Sinclair, United Church national general secretary, cited joint endeavors by the church and union, then noted, "Our relationship with the union movement is not something that's been a negative one, and I don't see why it couldn't be a positive one, if in fact this moved further along."
Or as another senior official at national headquarters put it, "We're nice people."
After the clerics met Friday with the union's legal team, the Auto Workers agreed to undertake the organizing effort on behalf of the church workers with dark stories to tell.
Vision TV's flagship public affairs program, 360 Vision, which first got wind of the unionization effort, broadcast a documentary earlier last week in which the wife of one clergyman described how her husband was driven from his United Church ministry in Southern Ontario by what she maintained was a smear campaign.
Galston, former principal of the United Church's Iona College at the University of Windsor, said the church's own statistics show that at any given time 18 percent of its clergy are on stress leave. In fact, the church says that 60 percent have reported some conflict with their congregations.
Galston recalled coming into his office when he was pastor at another church and finding a member of the congregation going through his personal files. When he asked what the man was doing, he was told it was none of his business.
He said members of the congregation often just to walk into the minister's residence - the manse - as if they owned the building. He described one clergyman walking out of his shower to find someone in the house. "There could be 20 keys to the door floating around," he said. "You don't know who has them."
Galston said a minister's pay after 12 years' service is $31,750 (U.S.) plus housing. It should be $8,300 to $12,500 higher, he said.
I'm sorry, but clergy are supposed to be called to a much higher union.....
Interesting...and they are pushing for homosexual marraige as well.
Great... now they'll be clergy thugs.
Speechless!!!
So, if they go on strike, do you get scab preachers to take their place? Make parishioners donate more to cover salaries? Make them free agents so they can negotiate multimillion dollar contracts with bigger churches? Not sure how this works.
Not a joke. If it passes, can they strike?
Well.
It's hard to know where to begin with this one.
But one visual comes to mind right away...something to do with crossing the picket line to attend Sunday services when the ministers go on strike...
Who they going to strike against, God?
That's one way to screw God-fearing people. Bring in union thugs.
jimmy hoffa would have loved this one...
Look for the Union Label!
LOL!!! i can just picture 200 parishioners not going to church because the pastor is outside holding a sign that says "down with god" on it!
canada is unstable, i'm telling you. take away hockey for just a few weeks and look what happens....
Clerical Workers Union.
i am guessing the union thugs will make it more "convenient" to get people to tithe (smile).
FMCDH(BITS)
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