insidetoronto.com

Funerals will proceed across Toronto after some cemetery workers walked off the job Thursday morning.

About 230 striking unionized employees with the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries set up picket lines after contract negotiations broke off. No further talks are now scheduled.

The workers, with the Canadian Service Workers Union, have indicated they will not disrupt funeral processions but will pass out information leaflets to the public passing by picket lines.

Meanwhile, the company said it will use non-unionized workers and managers to ensure funerals continue.

“Certainly, our Number 1 priority through this, given now we’re facing a work stoppage, is meeting the needs of families in at-need situations,” company spokesperson Rick Cowan said.

“The union has been very respectful. Our union employees are very respectful individuals. We honestly don’t have concerns with them respecting families. They’re being fantastic about that and the organization is very appreciative of that.”

A union spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

The labour dispute affects several Mount Pleasant cemeteries in the Greater Toronto Area including the main Mount Pleasant site at 375 Mount Pleasant Rd. north of Moore Avenue, Prospect at 1450 St. Clair Ave. W. west of Lansdowne Avenue, Toronto Necropolis at 200 Winchester St. south of Rosedale Valley Road, Pine Hills at 625 Birchmount Rd. north of St. Clair Avenue and York at 160 Beechcroft Rd. northwest of Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue.

Workers have been without a contract since their three-year deal expired July 4.

The union complains employees are subjected to herbicides sprayed at the cemeteries, even though it is illegal to use the chemicals in Toronto.

However, Cowan said cemeteries, like golf courses, are allowed to use herbicides and pesticides under restrictions. Mount Pleasant’s cemeteries always fall below allowable limits when audited by Toronto Public Health officials, he said.

When the chemicals are applied, it is by accredited professionals, not cemetery workers. The chemicals are usually sprayed early in the morning or late in the day when employees aren’t around, Cowan said.

Meanwhile, the company has taken many steps to reduce the use of herbicides and pesticides, such as using vegetable juice, maintaining grass at a minimum of three inches in length, introducing tens of thousands of ladybugs as natural predators and setting insect traps, Cowan said.

Even with those measures, chemicals are still needed, he said.

“Families we serve don’t take kindly to weed growth taking over,” Cowan said.

The union also has complaints over salaries and staffing levels.

While Cowan wouldn’t discuss specifics about the salary dispute, he said the two sides are not far apart.

He did not know how long the strike will last.

“It is hard for anybody to speculate that. I can reassure you the organization is ready, willing and able to sit down any time and any place to get back into conversation with the union,” he said. “Both parties, in their heart of hearts, don’t want a lengthy disruption.”

Affected Toronto Cemeteries