Montreal cemetery workers, managers reach tentative agreement, signalling possible end to strike

A strike that has kept the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal closed for more than six months came one step closer to ending on Thursday.

After a marathon negotiating session overnight Wednesday, the parties — the cemetery workers and management — agreed to accept the recommendation of a government-appointed mediator, according to Labour Minister Jean Boulet. 

"Congratulations to the parties!" Boulet tweeted on Thursday morning. "There will be a vote of the members of the union."

The development was the first sign in months that the strike, which has shuttered the cemetery and frustrated families who have been unable to bury relatives or visit their loved ones' graves since January, could be nearing an end. 

Union members are scheduled to vote on the proposition on Wednesday, June 21.

"There was progress and we will present it on Wednesday," said Éric Dufault, the president of the union representing office workers at the cemetery. "This conflict has gone on long enough."

Dufault said Wednesday that the main sticking point in contract talks had been management's refusal to budge on two of the workers' demands: a pay increase that includes back pay and the workers' desire to see staffing levels maintained or increased.

During the shutdown, the cemetery has become overgrown and unkempt. Its grounds are littered with branches that fell during an April ice storm.

It briefly opened on Mother's Day, but lineups formed outside the cemetery's main entrance. It will remain closed during Father's Day. 

On Wednesday, Michael Musacchio, whose daughter is buried in the cemetery, expressed his frustration about the length of the closure and the state of the cemetery's grounds. 

"It's time that both sides come to a conclusion," he said. "You have to put humanity back in the equation."

More than 300 bodies have piled up in storage during the strike, awaiting burial.