Later this month, mourners are set to reunite with their loved ones at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery after an arduous period of delayed burials brought about by workforce strikes. Despite significant progress made on the grounds since the strikes ended, there is a considerable amount of restoration still required.
The protracted union dispute over wages and working conditions saw the groundskeepers down their tools for several months. As a result, public access ceased due to the hazardous build-up of garbage and storm debris. The management deemed the conditions unsafe, stalling burials and leading to the accumulation of hundreds of bodies in storage.
Among the bereaved was Jimmy Koliakoudakis, whose mother, Penelope, sadly passed away in February. After enduring an extended wait, he was finally able to lay her to rest on a somber Wednesday. Koliakoudakis expressed his hopes that future strikes be circumvented by considering burials as an essential service to forestall such devastating consequences.
He further voiced his respect for the labor dispute process but passionately stressed, “There should never be a situation where family members are put on the side for something that is so important in our society.” He implored that grieving families should be spared the suffering from any such incident in the future and firmly insisted, “There has to be another way.”
The resumed work by the groundskeepers has begun to transform the landscape of the cemetery. Fallen branches and trees that once littered the roads have been cleared, yet the unkempt overgrowth of grass and lingering debris were still apparent during family visits.
Public access is set to resume shortly, with the gates due to reopen on September 11th. The cemetery management, despite being unreachable for comment regarding the phased reopening, stated through its website updates that an estimated 80% of the cemetery grounds have been tended to. It further assured that burials are now moving forward, with management reaching out systematically to grieving families on a first-come, first-served basis for burial scheduling.
