c. 1999 Religion News Service

VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ The Salvation Army is following the lead of the Canadian Roman Catholic church and threatening to shut down one of its operations unless its unionized staff agrees to a”Christian lifestyle”code requiring them to shun pornography, refuse to gamble and avoid sex outside marriage.

The British Columbia Government Employees Union, which is trying to negotiate a first contract for employees at the Salvation Army’s outreach program to Vancouver’s poor, however, is condemning the religious organization for demanding the lifestyle clause.

Union officials are also questioning whether such clauses are becoming a new trend in bargaining tactics at religion-run facilities receiving government funding.

Bishop Gerald Wiesner of the diocese of Prince George last month shut down a Catholic elementary school in northern British Columbia after the BCGEU rejected a”Catholicity clause”to cover teachers’ moral behavior.

This is the first time a similar clause has been sought by one of the Salvation Army’s numerous Canadian welfare arms, many of which are unionized.”This attitude is not only outrageous, it’s unconscionable,”said BCGEU official Sharon Bronson.”These workers provide outreach and support to society’s most needy and vulnerable people. They deserve respect at the bargaining table, not threats by their employer.” The 10 staff _ out of a total of 55 _ at Dunsmuir House who Salvation Army negotiators say must sign the Christian lifestyle clause are members of the facility’s”Crosswalk Missionary Team”in Vancouver’s poverty-ridden downtown eastside.

The Crosswalk Missionary Team staff are hired specifically because they are Christians expected to go out into the drug-filled streets and run-down hotels to talk to the homeless and disadvantaged to show there is a spiritual alternative to street life, said Dunsmuir House executive director Doug Peat.”The key to their ministry is they must be able to walk the Christian walk as well as talk the talk,”Peat said of the 12-year-old Crosswalk program, which he said the Salvation Army operates only in Vancouver.

The provincial government finances roughly one-quarter of the Crosswalk team’s $398,000 budget, with the rest coming from the Salvation Army.

The Salvation Army’s new demand for a Christian lifestyle clause is particularly troubling for the BCGEU because a similar issue was the stumbling block that ended the giant union’s efforts last month to sign a first contract for organized teachers in British Columbia’s north.

Wiesner, who is also vice president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, sought total control over whether a teacher at Immaculata Catholic school in Fort St. John could be fired for contravening church teaching by having an abortion, engaging in homosexual acts or marrying a divorced person.

Salvation Army negotiator Paul Hansen said there is legal precedent in Canada for religious employers demanding that certain employees make a firm commitment to a Christian lifestyle, even if part of the religious organization’s funding is paid by taxpayers. Catholic schools in British Columbia receive roughly 50 percent of their funding from the provincial government.

To support his argument, Hansen cited the 1988 Supreme Court of Canada decision upholding the Catholic church’s firing of a teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in North Vancouver because she married a divorced man, which is against Catholic teaching.

At the request of the BCGEU, the Labor Relations Board has appointed mediator Mark Atkinson to try to resolve the Christian lifestyle dispute at an Aug. 9-10 hearing.

The BCGEU’s Bronson, who recently helped negotiate a first contract for workers at the Salvation Army’s Harbor Mission in Vancouver, said members of the Crosswalk Missionary Team are”not at all unique”outreach workers for the Salvation Army. Therefore, Bronson says, they should not be covered by a special lifestyle clause.

On the other hand, Hansen maintained the Crosswalk staff have a special religious purpose, whereas other staff at Dunsmuir House are simply employed as cooks and cleaners and don’t need to be Christian to do their job effectively.

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Unlike the BCGEU, another British Columbia union has been able to accept religious lifestyle clauses in its contracts.

The British Columbia Catholic Teachers Association, which represents staff at five Catholic schools on Vancouver Island, is on the verge of signing a first contract to represent teachers at O’Grady Catholic High School in Prince George.

BCCTA president Jackie MacIntyre said the agreement became possible after the union realized the Catholic Church would shut down the high school if it did not obtain a lifestyle clause. The union recognized, MacIntyre said, the church doesn’t operate its schools to make a profit but to pass on Christian teaching.

DEA END TODD