The State : Strike Hits 17 Cemeteries

Union workers struck 17 San Francisco Bay Area cemeteries, raising the probability that burials at the affected cemeteries will be postponed until the dispute is settled, cemetery and union officials said. In 1985, more than 800 bodies went unburied until a long strike was settled. “Our park has pickets out front, and our people are honoring that,” said Bruce Green, weekend manager of Woodlawn Memorial Park in Colma. “But they’re not trying to stop” Memorial Day visitors. “During this strike there won’t be any interment. Mortuaries will have to hold the bodies,” Green said. The union representing 150 employees went on strike to protest use of non-union workers, said Carolyn Del Gaudio, business agent for the union. Negotiations between the Cemetery Workers and Greens Attendants Union, Local 265, and two cemetery owners associations broke off over the weekend, said John Cantwell, representing the associations. No new talks were scheduled, he said. “The burials will simply have to be postponed,” Cantwell said.