worksongs : photography
09/14/07 — Closing In

 

Taken at Montreal's Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetary, one of Canada's largest and oldest bural grounds. Four months ago, management at the cemetery locked out its maintenance workers and gravediggers after the union started sporadic strikes over work conditions. As a result, the grounds have become overgrown with weeds and the 600 or so bodies that were to be buried have been kept in cold storage. Obviously family members have been more than a little distraught over all of this. The dispute was settled this past week, but it will most likely take months before things return to normal again.