To begin I would like to give you a brief history as my life as a funeral director.
I graduated at Humber College in Toronto Ontario.Canada in 1979 with an award called ‘The Bay of Quinte Funeral Directors Association Award for performance as there were only 2 awards of this type awarded that year out of 60 students.
After graduation I went to work for a French funeral company called R.R. Gauthier Funeral Directors in Ottawa.
There was a Union there at the time and probably the only place in the world with an accredited Union in a funeral home, eventually I was elected president (Head steward) of the Union.

The reason why the Union existed was, originally I guess the company was exploiting their employees, like not paying them half time for overtime too much overtime by the embalmers with no overtime pay etc…and while president I had a responsibility and a lot of problems having my employees sign a grievance slip so I could confront the general Manager and in an attempt to get him to pay the workers their proper half time and what not. The company would threaten the employee if he or she should sign the grievance form.
Eventually push came to shove and I left the company and not long after the Union went under and closed it’s door. (No more Union)

The moral here is this exploitation is still going on especially with new graduates from funeral schools where the funeral establishment can use the new employee graduates for free services and exploit them.

Funeral homes are terrified of Unions cause they lose their grip on their employees.

I say here and it’s my opinion funeral homes with more than 5 employees should be Unionized.

There is more to this story and I can elaborate if you want me to and the reason why I left.

There is a song I wrote and recorded on http://www.youtube.com call “There’s a Rat toot toot in the casket” by Paul Henry Dallaire.
Now I’m a part time Singer/Songwriter

Thank You:
Retired: Funeral Director and Embalmer (Licenced)
Paul Henry Dallaire