TORONTO — Ministers of the United Church of Canada have launched an unprecedented drive to unionize, saying they have been victims of harassment and emotional abuse for too long.
Representatives of the church met in November alongside leaders of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) to sign their union cards and to launch a campaign to sign up the church’s 4,000 clergy.
The step is a first in North America. In Great Britain, about 2,000 clergy and employees of the Church of England have been members of Amicus, a large union, for about a decade.
The Canadian move followed a month of discussions between concerned clergy and the CAW, which normally deals with autoworkers, airline industry personnel and some miners. The union will assign full-time staff and other resources to the new members. David Galston and Jim Evans, who are spearheading the drive, said at a Nov. 5 news conference that low wages, lack of security and ongoing abuse of clergy by congregants and the failure of officials to address it, compelled them to take the step.
The United Church, Canada’s largest Protestant denomination, has 4,000 pastors and more than 3,600 congregations. In the 2001 national census, 3 million Canadians said they belonged to the United Church.
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