Burials start Wednesday at Montreal cemetery crippled by labour dispute

Burials at Montreal's largest cemetery will resume Wednesday, after a bitter four-month labour dispute shut the grounds.

Union officials representing 129 maintenance workers at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery said employees will be able to start burying and cremating some 500 bodies on Wednesday, after they finish assessing all the work that needs to be done.

The announcement couldn't come too soon for hundreds of families who had been left in limbo while their deceased relatives rested in cold storage.

"It's a beginning of relief, but it's not complete relief, because for me, this is just the beginning of the end," said Deborah De Thomassis, co-president of an association of families affected by the lockout.

"But I'm happy they're there," she told CBC News. "They respected what they said they would be doing."

As withdozens of families, De Thomassis has waited months to bury a loved one in her case, her grandmother.

Unfortunately, her grandfather didn't survive long enough to lay his wife to rest; he died on the weekend, she said.

Burials and cremations stopped abruptly May 16 when management at the historic cemetery locked out 129 maintenance workers, who then went on strike over job conditions and wages.

The labour disputestill isn't settled, asboth sides are negotiating anew contract, but for now burials and cremations will be scheduled once again.

Morale is fairly high among the workers despite the ongoing dispute, union president Daniel Maillet said.

"I would have preferred getting in with a settlement, so we'll keep working for one," he said on Monday.

Last week, the union proposed that the maintenance workers, who have been without a contract since 2003, return to their jobs four days a week, provided the lockout was lifted. The workers would still strike every Friday until the contractis resolved.

Management agreed, and workers formally approved the back-to-work protocol Sunday.

The labour dispute at the cemetery which houses the graves of former Quebec premier Robert Bourassa and Montreal Canadiens hockey legend Maurice Richard has caused outrage in the city.

Families of relatives waiting to be buried launched a $6-million class-action lawsuit against the cemetery.