Local News in Brief : Archdiocese Seeks to Set Aside Election

The Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese announced Friday that it will seek to set aside an election held last week in which gravediggers at its 10 cemeteries voted to be represented by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union.

Archdiocese lawyer Ben Goldman said he had sent a letter to the union that cites complaints about the way the union conducted its election campaign and also asserts that the union violated an agreement not to enter church property during the closing weeks of the hard-fought campaign.

“We’re very confident” the election will be set aside because of the union’s activities during the campaign, Goldman said.

Union lawyer David Rosenfeld said he was confident that the union’s victory would be sustained. “It’s unfortunate that the archdiocese would rather fight its employees than work with them through their union,” he said. The workers, most of whom are Latino, voted 66 to 62 to be represented by the union.

Barbara Mejia, the union’s California director, said she will meet with Msgr. Stephen Blaire next week to discuss the selection of a mutually acceptable third party to review the archdiocese’s charges. Both sides agreed to such a procedure before the election in the event that there was a dispute over the conduct of either side during the campaign.