Embalmers Picket Mortuary in Labor Dispute

To the surprise of some visitors at Westminster Memorial Park Mortuary-Cemetery, embalmers were picketing Saturday to protest their wages and working conditions.

Among other things, the workers want higher wages and an additional $150 each time they come into contact with the bodies of persons who had suffered from acquired immune deficiency syndrome, hepatitis or other infectious diseases, said Craig Hendrix, an embalmer for the past four years.

The mortuary’s 12 embalmers and apprentice embalmers recently became the first mortuary workers in Orange County to join the California Teamsters Public, Professional & Medical Employees Union, said Pat Chaplin, spokesman for Local 911.

To several visitors, a picket on Beach Boulevard in front of one of the county’s largest mortuaries was an unusual sight.

“I never heard of mortuary workers picketing,” said one man as he walked into the building.

“I think it should be settled somewhere else,” said a woman who did not want to be identified. “I respect the workers, but they should respect us.”

An hour earlier, the picketers had passed the word among themselves to put down their signs when a morning service ended and pallbearers brought out a casket, “in respect for the deceased and the family.”

“We are a professional group of people and request to be treated as such. . . . We’re understaffed, we’re underpaid,” Hendrix said.

Hire Additional Workers

The all-male crew also wants management to hire additional workers and to “recognize hazards” of handling bodies that carried infections, he said.

The workers also want management to promise in a contract that staff workers will continue to be called after hours to transport bodies on an overtime basis for $28 per body, before subcontractors are called in.

Mortuary assistant manager Kent E. Niemann would not comment about the negotiations but said subcontractors are used only when employees are not interested or available.

“The bodies must still be removed,” Niemann explained.

Wages for embalmers at the Westminster mortuary range from $4.50 to $9.50 per hour depending on level of experience and seniority, Hendrix said. The workers want those wages increased to a range of $5.50 to $13.50 per hour. They said that embalmers in Southern California earn less than their counterparts in cities such as San Francisco and New York.