Cemetery workers reject pact ( included a four-day work week)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=f29c720e-6797-46b6-98e5-2bf4dd01ca89

The Gazette
Published: Saturday, October 13

Members of the union representing 129 gravediggers and maintenance workers at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery voted last night to reject management's latest contract offer.

More than 94 per cent of workers who voted turned down the deal, union president Daniel Maillet said. It's the latest setback in a five-month-long labour dispute that has seen hundreds of bodies remain in refrigerated storage.

The contract proposal included a four-day work week and an 18-per-cent salary increase. According to the proposal, regular workers would receive $52,000 a year, while seasonal workers would earn $28,500, Dufour said.

The pension plan is the issue that has left the two sides at an impasse, Maillet said. "There are some people who are living on $41 a month. You can't feed a dog with $41 a month," he said.

"I don't know where their calculations are from," said Guy Dufour, the lawyer for cemetery management.

For the past 12 years, he said, "management gave them nine per cent (of their earnings toward a pension plan), and the individual paid in 4.5 per cent. That's 13.5 per cent."

Management is willing to reassess the pensions, Dufour said.