No deal: Strike continues at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery
CTV
The union representing workers at Montreal's Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery said a tentative deal to end a months-long strike has fallen through.
The union representing workers at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery in Montreal said a tentative deal to end a months-long strike has fallen through.
The strike at Canada's largest cemetery over working conditions has put grieving families in the middle of the ongoing dispute, as around 300 bodies lay waiting in cold storage to be buried.
Union and management were supposed to ratify a proposed deal reached last week, but in a news release from the CSN union on Thursday, an official said members rejected the conciliator's recommendations and the return-to-work protocol.
The release said members felt the recommendations were "too weak" and the employer's proposals were "unacceptable."
"What the members saw in the presentations was that the employer wanted to set us back virtually across the board," said Patrick Chartrand, President of the Cemetery Maintenance Employees' Union, in the release.
"What really gets to us in the bosses' attitude is the lack of recognition of our work they have shown by proposing such a disappointing return-to-work protocol. It's a lack of respect. We were losing out on various established gains. I have confidence in our members; they made the right decision."
More than 500 employees, including office workers and maintenance staff, are on strike, which started Sept. 20, 2022 with the office workers. Other groups of employees later joined the job action.
