According to North Jersey’s The Record, an open coffin inexplicably appeared Tuesday in front of the Edgewood Country Club, River Vale, N.J. A more common sign of labor protest joined the coffin on Thursday: a 12-foot inflatable rat.

 

The demonstrations were the work of the Asbestos, Lead and Hazardous Waste Laborers’ Local 78, a New York City-based union that says the attention-grabbing antics are the primary tool they’re using to force the club to unionize its groundskeepers. The union has eschewed more traditional avenues, such as a secret ballot vote, which they say could be too easily be undermined by management.

 

The protests have also struck the Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., which will host The Barclays in late August, the first leg in a series of PGA tournaments collectively known as the FedEx Cup.

 

Club officials at each course denied the allegations of maltreatment and low pay, reports The Record.

 

Steve Hennesey, president of Ridgewood Country Club, declined to specify how much groundskeepers are paid, but said that it was “significantly more than minimum wage on average,” and that most employees were also offered a benefits package.

 

At Edgewood, general manager Dan Palazzola suggested in a prepared statement that any attempt by Local 78 to unionize groundskeepers was a money grab, a ploy to increase the union’s membership.

 

“We respect our employees and believe that we have a strong relationship with them, which shall continue regardless of the questionable nature of the union’s display,” Palazzola told The Record.