Toronto grave diggers on strike

TORONTO, July 25 (UPI) -- Gravediggers and grounds-keepers at nine Toronto cemeteries have gone on strike, leaving management to operate backhoes.

Some 230 workers employed by The Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries began picketing after two months of talks broke down over raises from the average of $22 per hour, along with health concerns over pesticide use, the Toronto Sun reported Friday.

The workers are represented by the Canadian Service Workers Union, an affiliate of the Canadian Auto Workers union. The strike is the first in the cemetery group's more than 180 years of business.

Toronto recently banned the use of pesticides, but cemeteries were exempted, and the union has been asking to have the chemicals banned to protect its workers, the report said.

A spokesman for the cemetery group, Rick Cowan, told the Sun burials will be "our first priority" and grass-cutting, will be put on the back burner.

Cowan said the company has been training non-union staff how to operate backhoes for the last two months in anticipation of a strike.