In 1973, approximately 1,700 gravediggers at 47 cemeteries in the New York metropolitan area went on strike due to disagreements over the terms of a new labor contract. The strike, which initially only affected Cypress Hills Cemetery, began on April 12 and had spread to every cemetery whose workers were represented by the Cemetery Workers and Greens Attendants Union Local 365 by June 10. Within a month of this, on July 6, the strike ended after the union and cemetery management agreed to a new contract that included wage increases and a new pension plan.
Following a strike in 1970, Local 365 had negotiated a three-year contract with the management of 47 cemeteries in the metropolitan area that was set to expire on December 31, 1972. This date passed without a replacement due to disagreements over the terms of the contract, with the union seeking weekly wage increases of $12 in each year of the contract, among other benefits regarding pension plans and insurance policies. In January 1973, the union voted to authorize strike action. Over the next several months, negotiations continued with little success. On April 12, the union officially began a strike against Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, and, by the end of the month, the strike had spread to three cemeteries in the region.
On June 10, the strike spread to all 47 cemeteries. Several days later, Governor Nelson Rockefeller issued a state executive order mandating that the union and cemeteries seek mediation and, possibly, binding arbitration. On June 20, Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz began to take legal action to end the strike. Local President Sam Cimaglia defied court orders to end the strike, but on July 6, the union and cemeteries came to an agreement that saw an immediate end to the strike, with the gravediggers receiving their requested wage increases and a new pension plan. Discussing the strike in 2021, labor journalist Kim Kelly said that the gravediggers' action was emblematic of a renewed labor militancy that was seen in the United States during the 1970s.
Background
Organized labor among New York City's gravediggers
In the 1970s, cemetery workers at 47 cemeteries in the New York metropolitan area, consisting of gravediggers and mechanics, were unionized under Local 365 of the Cemetery Workers and Greens Attendants Union, an affiliate union of the Service Employees International Union of the AFL-CIO. Gravediggers in the area had engaged in several labor disputes with the management of the various cemeteries they worked at throughout the 20th century, such as with the 1949 Calvary Cemetery strike, where about 250 workers went on strike against the trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral. In January 1970, Local 365 began an eight-week strike that affected all 47 cemeteries and prevented the burial of roughly 15,000 bodies. While the burial of Orthodox Jews was allowed by the union due to Jewish religious law requiring the burial of a body within one day after their death, the burials themselves were not performed by the striking gravediggers. During the strike, the corpses were kept in storage, primarily in vaults or in coffins, though some bodies were kept under tents in the struck cemeteries. According to journalist Michael Kramer of the magazine New York, the strike only ended after "a thaw threatened decomposition in hundreds of bodies stacked irreverently above ground".
Contract negotiations
In 1972, the existing labor contract between the local union, which by this point represented about 1,700 workers, and the cemeteries (represented by four employer bargaining groups) was set to expire on December 31, and there were disagreements between the two sides over the terms of the replacement contract, primarily regarding pay. At the time, gravediggers earned a minimum weekly pay of $168 and mechanics made $192. The union was seeking a weekly pay increase of $36 over the course of the three-year contract, with $12 increases in each of the three years. However, the cemeteries management rebuffed the offer and instituted proposed a $15 increase, with a $4 increase the first year, $5 the following year, and $6 in the final year. The union was also seeking improvements to the workers' dental and medical insurance policies and a 100 percent increase in their pension plans, which at the time gave out a monthly payment of $125 for workers who had exceeded 25 years of service. John Egan, the president of one of the cemeteries and a spokesperson for all of the cemeteries' managements, said regarding the union's demands, "[it] would represent a 50 per cent increase in wages and benefits in the first year alone".
On December 31, the existing contract expired, and beginning on January 2, 1973, the cemetery workers began to work without a replacement contract in place. The following day, approximately 600 union members attended a meeting at the Roosevelt Auditorium in Manhattan's Union Square and voted to authorize a strike action against the 47 cemeteries. However, Local President Sam Cimaglia stated that he did not expect a strike in the immediate future and instead planned to submit the union's final set of demands directly to cemetery management in order to secure individual settlements with each cemetery.
Union alleges a lockout
On January 14, Pinelawn Memorial Garden and Cemetery on Long Island announced in an advertisement that they would be temporarily halting burials and would instead be storing bodies in their mausoleum on a temporary basis in response to the union's decision to authorize a strike. Alfred Locke, the president of the cemetery, described the decision as a "temporary layoff", though Cimaglia described the cemetery's actions as a "lockout" and announced that picketing at the cemetery would commence the following day.
On February 13, about 120 union members protested outside of the Manhattan offices of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller at 22 West 55th Street to seek help from the governor in resolving the labor dispute. Covering the event, The New York Times reported that the cemetery owners involved in the dispute said that before they could make any promises regarding the union's demands for pay increases, they would need assurances from the state government that they could increase the amount they could charge for burials, since the cemeteries would need permission from the New York State Department of State's Division of Cemeteries to raise their rates. The following month, the New York State Board of Mediation appointed a special mediator, Hugh Sheridan, to oversee the labor dispute. Sheridan had previously been involved in resolving the 1970 labor strike. By April, The New York Times reported that negotiations on a new contract were "stalled".
Course of the strike
Strikes against select cemeteries
On April 11, the union's executive board voted to begin strike action against the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn starting at 8 a.m. the next day, a move that affected 60 workers at the cemetery. The following week, on April 20, the union expanded their strike action by calling for a walkout of all 25 gravediggers working at Mount Ararat Cemetery in Farmingdale, and the following day, the union threatened to expand the strike further by targeting St. John's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Queens. By April 24, the workers at St. John's were involved in the strike, and by the end of the month, two picketers at the cemetery were arrested for attempting to block a funeral in a protest that was ultimately broken up by the police. By this time, there were 49 unburied bodies in storage at Cypress Hills, 14 at St. John's, and an undisclosed number at Mount Ararat. On April 27, Cimaglia stated that a strike affecting all 47 cemeteries was impending, and the following day, he announced that a meeting would be scheduled in the next few days to discuss plans for this action.
Board of inquiry In mid-April, New York State Industrial Commissioner Louis L. Levine created a board of inquiry to investigate the labor dispute. On April 18, this three-man board, headed by former New York City Deputy Mayor Robert W. Sweet, met with representatives from both the cemeteries and the union to see if a resolution could be reached and, if not, scheduled for a public hearing to take place on April 23. However, the walkout at Mount Ararat on April 20 prompted Sweet to order an immediate public hearing on the labor dispute that same day. Due to statements from Cimaglia indicating that he would not come otherwise, the board subpoenaed him, though Cimaglia ultimately chose to disregard his subpoena because of the absence of several negotiators representing cemetery management. On April 23, union officials walked out of the public hearings, with the legal counsel for the union stating that they would not participate in the hearings unless every employer from all of the 47 cemeteries were also present at the hearings. The counsel also challenged the board of inquiry to cite the union for contempt of court, saying he was prepared to have a review from the New York Supreme Court. Ultimately, the union refused to attend the board's formal hearings.
Governor advocates for possible binding arbitration By the beginning of May, the board of inquiry was suggesting voluntary arbitration and possible action from the New York State Legislature in order to resolve the labor dispute. By May 19, Governor Rockefeller was advising the legislature to pass legislation that would allow the state government to invoke binding arbitration "if the current situation deteriorates". Per the terms of the proposed legislation, if the New York State Department of Health declared a public health emergency as a result of the strike, the state government would be able to mandate the State Board of Mediation to make a final mediation effort between the two sides and, if no agreement were reached within 48 hours, to invoke compulsory arbitration. By May 26, the bill had passed the New York State Senate and, the following day, it passed through the State Assembly. In opposition to the legislation, State Senator A. Frederick Meyerson said that the bill would "strike a mortal blow" to the rights of labor unions.
Strike spreads to all cemeteries
By early June, the strike against the three cemeteries had been going on for about 7 weeks and had idled 160 union members. However, on June 7, Cimaglia announced that, following a meeting of Local 365's executive board, the strike would be expanded to affect all 1,700 union members at all 47 cemeteries on June 10 unless an agreement were reached. By June 9, an agreement between the union and cemeteries had still not been reached, and that night, Cimaglia announced that a full walkout of all affected cemeteries would begin the following morning. According to The New York Times, the walkout could possibly leave as many as 300 bodies unburied per day.
On Sunday, June 10, the strike spread to the remaining 44 cemeteries in the metropolitan area. At Mount Hebron Cemetery in Queens, 22 graves were dug a day prior in preparation for the anticipated work stoppage there. At the Jewish cemeteries affected, which hold burials on Sundays unlike the Roman Catholic and many of the nonsectarian and Protestant cemeteries, many of the friends and families of the deceased engaged in digging and burying the bodies, with the allowance but not assistance of the striking gravediggers. Additionally, mourners took to driving the hearses carrying the bodies of the deceased to their graves, as many of the professional hearse drivers, who were unionized with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, refused to cross the gravediggers' picket lines. In response to the strike, local rabbi Samuel Schrage announced the formation of a volunteer committee to assist in Jewish burials in the city.
Strike continues