Archdiocese, Union Agree to Feb. 8 Vote by Gravediggers

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union announced Wednesday that they have agreed to a Feb. 8 election to determine if the archdiocese’s cemetery workers will be represented by the union.

The state Mediation and Conciliation Service will conduct the voting by the 140 gravediggers at the archdiocese’s 10 cemeteries and supervise the vote count at a church later that day, the announcement said.

Church and union representatives also agreed to set up a fact-finding panel to settle any pre-election disputes.

The organizing campaign started last spring, and the question of whether and when an election would be held has been a source of contention for several months. In October, the National Labor Relations Board said it would not conduct an election, stating that to do so could lead to “excessive entanglement” of a government agency in church affairs and thus violate the First Amendment.

Soon afterward, the union asked Archbishop Roger M. Mahony to agree to an election supervised by a neutral third party. He agreed and initially an election was set for mid-January. The date was changed after the archdiocese objected to some of the union’s tactics.

Wednesday’s pact resolved one key dispute between the two sides. The union agreed that none of its organizers will enter cemeteries to electioneer between now and the vote. But the church agreed to let union representatives stand immediately outside the cemeteries to campaign among the workers as they leave and enter work.