Officials at Canada's largest cemetery are preparing to use a refrigerated truck to store bodies, as their on-site cold storage rooms approach capacity in the weeks-long labour dispute.
Talks between unionized workers and management at Montreal's Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery ground to a halt in mid-May.
"Since the beginning of the conflict, most of the coffins are piling up inside this huge cold room that the cemetery has, but now in the last few days, the cemetery is looking at other alternatives, such as using a ... refrigerated trailer to store the bodies," CTV Montreal's Stephane Giroux said Wednesday.
The trailer, measuring 15 metres in length, has been parked at the cemetery since the beginning of the week.
Cemetery spokesman and negotiator Guy Dufort said management will only use the refrigerated truck if needed.
"We want to make sure that ... the inside of those trailers would be adequate ... because we have to make sure that they comply with Quebec regulations as to storing bodies," Dufort told CTV Montreal.
"We also want to make sure that if we have to resort to that, the families would agree to it as well."
The cold rooms, which hold 450 bodies, are near capacity.
But cemetery management is considering piling caskets on top of each other to fit as many as 620 bodies, which could extend the available storage space until late September.
It's hard to gauge how the families feel about these plans, Giroux said.
"The fact, of course, that they're planning to expand the storage rooms mean that they're nowhere near a resolution of this conflict," he said.
Meanwhile, families are being forced to maintain their loved ones' plots as the dispute carries on.
"The bottom line is, it's just very disrespectful," said Antoine Ragonese, who is awaiting her father's burial at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges.
Out-of-control grass is overtaking tombstones and groundhog holes puncture the normally manicured grounds, causing families to complain they can't find their plots.
The cemetery is the largest in Canada and the third largest in North America, covering 130 hectares.
Management says the union's demands include a minimum 36-week employment period for seasonal workers and the acquisition of years of prior service -- demands that would cost the cemetery $15 million.
The Fabrique Notre-Dame-de-Montr�al administers the cemetery. The workers were locked out when negotiations between the two parties collapsed.
With a report from CTV Montreal's Stephane Giroux
