Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Gravediggers Strike in Montreal

From The Gazette:

Bury the dead, Cardinal says

Saying, "Enough is enough," Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte yesterday urged both sides in the 3-month-old strike at Notre Dame des Neiges cemetery to set aside their differences and bury the dead.

Turcotte, head of the Roman Catholic diocese of Montreal, wants the corporation that runs the cemetery on Mount Royal to lift its lockout of 129 unionized gravediggers and maintenance workers. At the same time, he asked the union to suspend its strike.

An impromptu news conference was called yesterday after Turcotte met privately with Debora De Thomasis, head of a group calling itself Rights for the Families of the Dead in Notre Dame des Neiges cemetery.