Montreal, Canada, Aug 7, 2007 / 09:04 am
Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte of Montreal has urged both sides in the two-month-old strike at Canada's largest Catholic cemetery to come to a speedy resolution.
Cardinal Turcotte told a press conference yesterday that he has asked the independent corporation that runs the Catholic Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery on Montreal’s Mount Royal to end its lockout, and asked the union to suspend its strike. The archbishop of Montreal wants both sides to negotiate a settlement.
About 60 bodies a week have been placed in refrigerated units since the cemetery's 129 unionized employees were locked out May 16. A class-action lawsuit on behalf of the families of 600 unburied dead has been filed, reported The Gazette.
"We can't keep dead people in Frigidaires," the cardinal reportedly said. "It’s a real mix-up.”