Congrats to workers at Mt. View Funeral Home - the newest members of Teamsters Local 117.

A group of eleven workers at Mt. View Funeral Home have overwhelmingly voted to join Teamsters Local 117. The staff associates voted for Local 117 representation in an election with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, June 15. The workers will join an existing bargaining unit of seventeen cemetery workers, embalmers, and funeral directors, who are already members of the Union.

After speaking with their co-workers about the benefits of unionization, the staff associates reached out to Local 117 to discuss how to improve workplace safety, secure equitable wages, and win basic respect on the job.

“We are thrilled to welcome another group of workers at Mt. View to Teamsters Local 117,” said Paul Dascher, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 117. “These workers provide care, compassion, and support to families when they need it most – after the loss of a loved one. They deserve a strong Teamsters contract with fair pay, good benefits, and provisions that protect their safety and well-being.”

Staff associates at Mt. View are responsible for transporting deceased individuals from their homes or other places of death to the funeral facility. They offer support to family members of the deceased at multiple locations during the grieving process – prior to transportation, at the funeral home, and at memorial services.

"We wanted to join Teamsters 117 because we didn't feel confident that upper management cared about our safety,” said Leía Allen, a staff associate at Mt. View. “People have been hurt - wrists, backs, knees - and pressured to return to work before they are fully healed. Our needs and requests have been repeated, consistently ignored, forgotten, and dismissed. Not anymore. It isn't just about us – it never was. But we're the ones who are going to do something about it."

“Our new members at Mt. View have expressed concerns about not having access to proper protective equipment and elements of their job that are unsafe. We will address these issues in bargaining to make sure workplace safety is a priority,” Secretary-Treasurer Dascher said.