The most controversial local labor story of the year came out of 147-year-old Woodlawn Cemetery.

For the past couple of years, minority workers at Woodlawn tried unsuccessfully to address what they said were acts of overt racism by supervisors. Their appeals to Woodlawn administrators fell on deaf ears, they said.

This year, however, their voices were amplified by a group called South Bronx Community Congress, which staged a series of rallies outside of the cemetery’s gates and demanded changes. City Councilman Charles Barron joined them for a rally over the summer that led to cemetery officials publically acknowledging that they had hired an independent investigator to look into the racism charges.

In early August, the cemetery released a statement saying that based on the investigation, they would be “reconfiguring” their supervising staff and make significant changes to the way they train both managers and general employees.

Nearly five months later, however, minority workers say nothing much has changed. On top of that, they say cemetery administrators are now telling them significant layoffs are looming.