Hundreds of workers for Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries returned to work yesterday after throwing up picket lines around nine Toronto-area graveyards last week, the first cemetery workers strike ever.
The Canadian Service Workers Union ratified a new contract on Sunday night and Willie Wham, the union’s president, said the contract offer from the company included wage increases and dealt with his members’ concerns over pesticide use on cemetery grounds.
“Everybody is smiling and happy to be doing what they are supposed to be doing,” Mr. Wham said yesterday.
Two hundred and thirty workers, who do everything from cutting grass to operating backhoes to dig graves, walked off the job last Thursday. They handed out leaflets at the gates to the sprawling, historic cemetery while Mount Pleasant management and non-unionized workers filled in at their usual jobs.
No funerals were disrupted by the job action. “Not a family was turned away,” said Rick Cowan, a spokesman for Mount Pleasant.
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