Talks Collapse in S.F. Strike of Gravediggers
Talks aimed at settling the three-week-old gravediggers strike have collapsed, and burials remain delayed at 19 struck cemeteries on both sides of the bay.
Bargaining broke off Friday between 180 gravediggers and the owners of the cemeteries. Bodies were accumulating at the rate of 10 to 20 a day, funeral homes estimated. The strike started March 18.
The Cemetery Workers & Greens Attendants Union Local 265 is asking a 7% wage increase, amounting to about 87 cents an hour, plus fringe benefits, especially health maintenance plans and pension benefits. Management has offered raises in the range of 40 cents an hour, reports said.
Friday’s talks broke off at Colma City Hall, within view of many of the estimated million burial sites in “cemetery city,” a few miles south of San Francisco. There are no cemeteries in San Francisco except a national cemetery in the 6th Army Presidio.
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