A gradual return to normal is expected at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal, after a six-month strike. Those wishing to pay their respects at the grave of a loved one will have to wait until September due to delays in site maintenance.
Burials at the largest cemetery in the country will resume in the coming weeks, announced Wednesday La Fabrique de la parish Notre-Dame de Montréal, the organization that manages the site.
The bereaved families will however have to wait until “early September” to have access to the land, the maintenance of which was also left aside during the strike. “We have important security work to do, explains Michel St-Amour, spokesperson for La Fabrique, in a telephone interview. We wouldn’t want anyone getting hurt. »
An exception will be granted to relatives of people whose burial will take place before September.
The highly anticipated reopening plan will run until December. An agreement in principle was accepted by 83% last Thursday, resolving the impasse between the workers and the management of the cemetery. Salary increases of 26% are planned over 9 years, as well as retroactivity since 2021.
A long household
A long cleaning has been waiting for returning workers since last Monday. In addition to the tall grass, the branches that clutter the trail are from the April sleet and the most recent severe thunderstorms. The scale of the work is also explained by the size of the land, which covers 343 acres, and the large number of trees, which exceed 13,000, on the mountainside.
According to Éric Dufault, president of the office workers’ union, it is “unthinkable” that the cleaning should take so long, especially to allow some access to the site, even if limited. Twenty office workers are still waiting for a work contract, an absence that will complicate the resumption of cemetery activities, he believes.
Crews will be fully deployed to maintenance work for the next two weeks. Some workers will then be released to devote themselves to burials. More than 300 bodies are currently waiting to be buried.
Still waiting
For Jimmy Koliakoudakis, whose mother died last February, this is “another good news that brings us closer to the burial”. The man knew that reopening would take time. However, he denounces the continuing lack of clarity regarding deadlines.
“It’s shameful to ask us to wait another two months to go see those we love,” says Nancy Babalis, who sneaks almost every week under the cemetery fence to see the grave of her son who died at the age of 13.
“The only thing we can do to reopen as quickly as possible is to speed up the work,” said Michel St-Amour.