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The strike tactics of Urgel Bourgie union workers give a whole new meaning to the word “disgusting”:

. . . 50 striking Urgel Bourgie workers cheered as [Judy Anthony’s aunt’s] casket was loaded into a hearse outside a funeral home. The strikers then formed a raucous cordon around the departing cortage.

“When they brought my aunt’s casket through the doors, that’s when the cheering and the clapping and the yelling started,” Anthony recounted.

“And as all the cars (bearing about 60 family members to the church service) went through this horrible gauntlet of strikers, they kept waving and shouting and clapping and cheering.

“It was like they were at a soccer match in Europe.”

Anthony said the antics were especially hard on her 73-year-old uncle, who had just lost his wife of 50 years.

About 300 Urgel Bourgie unionized funeral directors, office workers, undertakers and support staff walked off the job Dec. 9 after their demands for better pay and greater job security weren’t met by the century-old chain of funeral homes.

If you ask me, the only case the union members made is that they should all be fired for incompetence. The nature of their jobs demand that they treat grieving people with respect and dignity. No matter what their problems with management consist of, there’s no excuse for this kind of behaviour.

Anthony said her family bears no ill will toward the funeral company, which she said did an excellent job with limited resources. But she had little sympathy for union members.

“The clapping and the cheering are what got to me the most,” she said. “How can somebody who actually works in this industry clap and cheer a casket?”

How indeed?

{ 2 comments… add one }
  • Hanthala 02.27.04, 12:33 AM

    Yep…pretty bad…i bet most of them are Quebecois…think this has anything to do with their cultural depravity…or their religion?

  • 8opus 02.27.04, 5:05 AM

    By definition, all of them would have to be Quebecois — I doubt very many striking funeral home employees are tourists. Um, Hanthala, explain again why you think we are depraved?

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