RELIGIOUS WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

The Korea Times is reporting on the unionization of lay Buddhists working at the Samkwang Temple in the southern port city of Pusan.

Around 30 ``Bodhisattvas’’ who work as security guards, parking agents and cooks at the Temple have been at odds with temple management for a while now and have recently joined the Pusan branch of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). Bodhisattva, in this case, refers to a lay Buddhist who vows to live by compassion and seek enlightenment while serving priests and working for the temple administration.

Last Saturday the workers gathered in front of the temple gates with other labor activists carrying sings and banners with such messages as ``Stop Unfair Labor’’ and ``Be Sincere in Negotiations.’’

``Even though most of us have been working hard here for more than a decade, the temple doesn’t treat us as workers but as volunteers. They see no need to compensate us for our labor,’’ a Bodhisattva claimed. ``The temple should be quick in coming to the negotiation table and listening to complaints about its unappreciation for our sacrifices,’’ he said.

The temple says the workers are just volunteers. ``They don’t have legal status as employees. And the temple is not in the position to improve their working conditions,’’ a temple official said.

In July, lay Buddhist workers at the Central Directorate of Religious Affairs of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism filed an application with the order’s regional office to create their own union. A decision has not yet been made. If the union is permitted, it will be the first union of Buddhists in Korea.

``The union will help Buddhist management be responsible to its laypeople,’’ said a member of the would-be first Buddhist union. ``There are corruption scandals popping out from the Buddhist community. And we think the Buddhist union will also be helpful in preventing them,’’ he said.

But it isn’t just Buddhists.

Lee Kil-won, pastor of Kyonggin Church in Inchon, created the first Christian labor union in Korea in May 2004. The union caused concern in the Christian community, as critics said struggle and conflict accompanied with union activities oppose the Christian principle of love. However, the union is getting positive reactions so far, mainly for its activities to help church workers who were unfairly dismissed to be reinstated.

``Unionization doesn’t infringe on religious principles. Rather, it helps workers facing unfair working conditions at churches gain their rights as workers,’’ Lee told the Korea Times. ``Every religious organization should take responsibility for its hired workers. As we have set a precedent, it will not be as difficult for them (Buddhists) to have one,’’ he said.

And it isn’t just Korea.

Religious workers in the United Kingdom have been organizing for almost five years. In 2000 nearly 2,000 letters were sent by Reverend Paul Flowers to Methodist ministers and deacons across Great Britain urging them to join a trade union – the Transport and General Workers' Union. Rev. Flowers told the Telegraph and Argus at the time the move was not an expression of dissatisfaction with the church's hierarchy. It was merely to provide his colleagues with a professional body to represent them and create a forum where issues could be raised with the church. The additional benefit clearly of being in a trade union is that it is independent of the church structures. We hope that it could be seen as a useful forum to talk through issues."

Last year after Rev. Flowers was nominated to sit on a government working group set up to examine employment rights in religious organizations. At that time he said, “The absence of any clear guidance for the employment of the clergy means officials often lack the full protection of the law. The T&G has been involved in a number of cases where officials are concerned by unfair dismissal and discrimination.” Many religious officials are considered self-employed which has given rise to problems of employment protection.

And now members of what is believed to be the first workers' union in a Roman Catholic Church say church leaders are trying to break the labor contract and undermine the union. The charges involve lay workers at churches in the Diocese of Brownsville who signed up with the United Farm Workers in 2003.

"During the two years since Aug. 18, 2003, the agreement signed before Judge Ramirez has been broken, and the employees in the diocese and at Holy Spirit have suffered terribly," Rebecca Flores, a spokeswoman for the workers, wrote in a news release.

The union has drawn praise from liberal Catholic Church groups like Call to Action, which said the church should be applying its own teachings about workers' rights in its own backyard. “The Catholic Church has always been at the forefront of supporting workers, yet I don't know of any group of employees that is treated more unfairly than the employees of the Catholic Church," Call to Action spokeswoman Linda Pieczynski said.

Meanwhile, volumes of anecdotal experience suggest, as two Vanderbilt University sociologists concluded in an AFL-CIO-commissioned study, anti-union campaigns at Catholic hospitals are indistinguishable from anti-union campaigns in the corporate world. It's no mystery as to why.

To respond to union organizing drives, they hire the same consulting firms, companies that specialize in "union avoidance."

Yet, most national church bodies are unequivocal on the right of workers to form unions, and issue statements periodically reaffirming the principle.

"The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions," declared the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in one of several such statements. "No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity first; therefore we firmly oppose organized efforts to “prevent workers from organizing." Sources: Northwest Labor Press, Star Telegram (Texas), T and G News, Telegraph & Argus (UK), Korean International Labor Federation, Korea Times