Catholic Cemetery Workers Narrowly Vote to Unionize

By a thin margin of 66 to 62, the cemetery workers of the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese voted Wednesday in favor of being represented by a union, culminating a yearlong campaign.

“I’m very happy for the workers,” said Barbara Mejia, California director of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, just after votes were counted at St. Vincent’s Roman Catholic Church here. “We’re looking forward to getting into negotiations,” she added.

“We have to move forward harmoniously,” said Msgr. Stephen J. Blair, the archdiocese’s chancellor who served as a spokesman for Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, who was out of the city. Blair said the archdiocese would seek to make sure that the workers “reconciled” after the hard-fought contest.

Residue of Battle

It was not clear that the acrimonious battle between the union and the archdiocese had ended. Ben Goldman, a lawyer for the archdiocese, said he believes that there were grounds for objecting to the conduct of the union in the election campaign. He said he would meet with Mahony today to discuss whether to submit objections to an arbitrator or to forgo that option and begin negotiations.

Although the election involved only 140 workers, the campaign was closely watched in labor circles because Mahony, a long-time supporter of workers’ rights, had urged his employees to vote against union representation.

Mahony spoke personally to many of the workers, virtually all of whom are Latino. He sent out a letter in Spanish a few days ago in which he described improvements in working conditions and benefits that had been made and urged the employees to allow him to work “directly” with them.

Flyers also were distributed to the workers at the archdiocese’s 10 cemeteries, arguing that a vote against the union was a vote for the archbishop.

The archdiocese also used the services of a Latino labor relations consultant, Carlos Restrepo, who specializes in attempting to persuade Latino workers that they would be better off without union representation.

Mejia said she believes the vigorous campaign waged by the archdiocese and by Mahony in particular had eroded support for the union.

“It’s hard enough for any worker to stand up to his boss, but particularly when your boss is the archbishop, someone who sits down and has tea with the Pope,” Mejia said.

For its part, the union held demonstrations and meetings with the workers in their homes, and also circulated flyers describing how unionized cemetery workers at New York and San Francisco archdioceses had better pay and benefits. The union also enlisted the support of other pro-labor forces.

Letter From Teachers

Just last week, the National Assn. of Catholic School Teachers sent a letter to the cemetery workers that urged them to vote for the union and criticized Mahony’s conduct in the campaign.

The election was conducted under the auspices of the State Medication and Conciliation Service. The union and the archdiocese had agreed to have the state agency supervise the election after the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles said it would not conduct an election among the workers. The board agreed with the contention of archdiocese lawyers that the employees were “religious workers” and therefore exempt from the National Labor Relations Act.

Alberto Flores, who has been a gravedigger for the archdiocese for four years, said that having a union would help the workers “move forward.” Specifically, he said the union would help him attain greater job security, improved wages and medical benefits and a “just system” for obtaining promotions.

“Above all, it will help make a better relationship between the church and the workers,” said Flores, 40, who came to the United States five years ago from Honduras.