By Canadian Press

Grievers sneaking into cemetery as labour dispute drags on; 300 bodies still unburied

Jul 9, 2023 | 1:05 PM

MONTREAL — Grievers issued pleas on Sunday for the Quebec government to take action as a months-long standoff between workers and management at Canada’s largest graveyard drags on.

A strike by more than 100 maintenance and office workers has kept the Notre-Dames-des-Neiges Cemetery’s wrought-iron gates shut to the public since mid-January, with the exception of a few days in the spring.

The labour dispute has left more than 300 bodies unburied, with the remains stored at freezing temperatures in an on-site repository, the cemetery said.

Jimmy Koliakoudakis, whose mother died in February, said family members are “suffering.”

“Families are only asking for some dignity and some humanity involved in this labour dispute,” he said, demonstrating alongside a handful of other protesters outside the graveyard Sunday afternoon. “We’re stuck in the middle.

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“I don’t understand why the government isn’t taking a harder stance or a more direct step into this labor conflict.”

Others have seen no choice but to sneak onto the grounds.

Nancy Babalis said she still comes nearly every weekend to visit the plot of her 13-year-old son, who died 10 years earlier minus a day.

“I sneak in every weekend. I found a place where the fence is higher,” she said. “If it was their child or their loved one there, they would do the same thing I’m doing.”

Babalis called the impasse and ongoing closure “inhumane.”

A tentative agreement between management and the Cemetery Maintenance Employees’ Union fell through last month.

Both sides had agreed to support the recommendation of the province’s head mediator, Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet said on June 15, dubbing the would-be deal an “excellent development.” But the maintenance union ultimately rejected it.

Groundskeepers have been without a collective agreement since 2018, and office workers — who kicked off the strike in September — haven’t had one in place since 2017.

Boulet said in a Twitter post Thursday the parties will meet with him separately on Monday.

“This conflict has been going on for too long and has significant consequences for human dignity and for the families affected,” he wrote.

Cemetery spokesman Daniel Granger said he hoped to find a resolution “as soon as possible.”

Waist-high weeds and downed branches from an April ice storm cover the cemetery grounds, which sprawl across Mount Royal’s north side. A groundhog perched on the base of a headstone sat shrouded in overgrown grass Sunday, the only creature visible on the property.

“Now that all the leaves are on the trees, you don’t see that the branches are broken. We have one, two, three, four tree limbs that fall each day. That makes it dangerous for people to walk the cemetery,” Granger said.

“There’s a big cleanup that needs to be done.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2023.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press