Important Update

 The American Library Association-Allied Professional Association's Standing Committee on the Salaries and Status of Library Workers will begin operating this blog shortly. Please stay tuned for more news that you are used to, and some new fun stuff too!

Ratio of 900 students for each librarian is outrageous.

 

Unions march on campus, demand respect for researchers

At Western University (uwo.ca)

More than 150 members from multiple unions on campus gathered on UC Hill Wednesday at noon to demand increased funding for researchers from the provincial government.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada Local 610 — the Teaching Assistants’ and Postdoctoral Associates’ Union — organized the demonstration. The union is currently negotiating a new collective agreement for TAs with the university, after the previous agreement expired on Aug. 31.

The librarian and archivists union is currently negotiating its collective agreement with the university and will be in a legal strike position on Oct. 4 if they failed to reach an agreement. 

... Western’s research and infrastructure is built on the 44 librarians and archivists, but the ratio of 900 students for each librarian is outrageous.  

Unions march on campus, demand respect for researchers | Campus | westerngazette.ca

 

St. Charles PL (IL) wins First Union Contract

 St. Charles Public Library workers in Illinois win first contract | American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)

For the 100 AFSCME members at the St. Charles Public Library in Illinois, their first contract ticks all the boxes—and then some.

Brandon Buckley, an early activist for the union and a young adult librarian of 14 years, said one of his key motivations in helping organize the union—and later, serving on the bargaining committee—was to not sit idly by while the library went down a path he wasn’t comfortable with.

“I grew up in this city, and my family has lived here since the 1800s,” he said. “I feel a connection to this library, and I don’t want to be forced out by people who don’t care about the community. So we had to make a decision: We could either run or we could fight. We chose to fight.”

An important issue was discipline. Workers had no voice, no due process, and no recourse if they were unfairly disciplined. Management unilaterally decided workers were guilty of policy violations without ever properly investigating them.

Records of those alleged violations could sit in an employee’s file for years, and would be used against them if management wanted to get rid of them or deny them a promotion. According to organizer and bargaining committee member Sutton Skowron, a six-year adult services librarian, the discipline policies began to drive more and more workers away.

“People would leave and they wouldn’t be replaced, and the people who still worked here wouldn’t get any more hours,” Skowron said. “You were just expected to do more in the same amount of time for the same amount of pay.”

All this turmoil hurt the community.

“We’re a public organization,” Skowron said. “When we’re allowed to do our jobs, when we have what we need to do our jobs well, the whole community benefits.”

When, after 16 months at the bargaining table, it was announced that they had a tentative agreement, the room burst into applause.

“It was just pure joy,” Buckley said. “There was a brightness inside me that hadn’t been there in a long time. I didn’t know how much everything was weighing on me. I just felt lighter. I felt like we got so much in this contract. So many good things were coming our way, it was finally something to look forward to after being so dark for so long.”

Over the life of the four-year contract, they won 17% across-the-board wage increases, with additional wage adjustments for six titles. They also secured a ratification bonus equal to 1% of their annual wages.

Now, all staff at the library—full- and part-time—will receive four weeks of paid vacation, plus two personal holidays that can be used at any time and three personal days. They also made important advancements on paid parental leave; where they previously had none, they now have six weeks.

They also made serious progress on ensuring fairer schedules for all. Previously, schedules could be changed arbitrarily by managers, leaving parents to scramble for child care and disrupting the lives of everyone at the library. Now, their union contract ensures that the only time schedules can be changed is if there is a provable operational need.

“You have certain expectations when you go to work at a library. You recognize that you’re not going to get rich doing it, but you at least expect to be treated well,” Buckley said. “We are all very passionate about the job, but the passion was being sucked out of it.”

They won language that makes the disciplinary process fairer and more transparent. Instead of violations remaining in their file forever, now they are automatically expunged after two years, so long as a substantially similar violation does not occur within that time.

The contract was ratified unanimously.

Buckley hopes that other library workers in the area will see the strength they’ve found through their union and what they were able to accomplish in their first contract, and be inspired to organize their workplaces, too.

“When we meet with new employees to do their union orientation, a lot of them come from libraries nearby, and they tell us that they are dealing with a lot of the same things we used to deal with,” Buckley said. “I feel like if every library had a union, they wouldn’t have all those problems.”

Shiraz Durrani- Trade Unions, Power and Politics in Kenya-No Politics, No Power !

Trade Unions, Power And Politics In Kenya - No Politics, No Power!| Countercurrents

For other articles on Unions by Shiraz Durrani see the search box at Countercurrents:

About Countercurrents.org | Countercurrents

 Shiraz Durrani is a Kenyan political exile living in London. He has worked at the University of Nairobi as well as various public libraries in Britain where he also lectured at the London Metropolitan University. 

Shiraz has written many articles and addressed conferences on aspects of Kenyan history and on politics of information in the context of colonialism and imperialism. His books include Kenya’s War of Independence: Mau Mau and its Legacy of Resistance to Colonialism and Imperialism, 1948-1990 (2018, Vita Books). 

He has also edited Makhan Singh – A Revolutionary Kenyan Trade Unionist (2017, Vita Books) and Pio Gama Pinto: Kenya’s Unsung Martyr,1927 – 1965 (2018, Vita Books). He is a co-editor of The Kenya Socialist. and edited Essays on Pan-Africanism (2022, Vita Books, Nairobi). His latest book (2023) is Two Paths Ahead: The Ideological Struggle between Capitalism and Socialism in Kenya, 1960-1990.

Workers at Pickerington Public Library (OH) vote to unionize

 PICKERINGTON, Ohio—Staff at the Pickerington Public Library are organizing to form a union.

If successful, they would become the third library system in central Ohio to unionize through the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT). Another group of workers, at the Fairfield County Library, are organized through the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

On August 10, the Pickerington Public Library staff formally asked the library board of trustees to voluntarily recognize their union. Signed union cards were presented to management as well as the State Employee Relations Board. At least 73% of staff in the library system, spanning two locations, had signed cards indicating their support for the unionization effort.

More here:

Workers at another public library in Ohio vote to unionize

Thanks to PLG member, MR for this news.

Strike at Powell's Bookstores-Portland

 Union employees at Powell's Books, Portland, Ore., staged a one-day strike that they called the "Powell's Books No Labor Day Strike," which included picketing at the three Powell's stores--which all closed for the day because of the strike--and a rally at the flagship Powell's City of Books store at 1 p.m.

ILWU Local 5, which has represented Powell's staff since 2000, said that the strike, authorized last month by a 92% approval vote, was to protest the state of negotiations for a new contract. (The union has struck once before, in 2003.) Negotiations started early this year, and the most recent contract ran out on June 7. On Friday, the union filed unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Powell's.

As the Oregonian noted, the union alleges Powell's has "refused to bargain in good faith over wages and benefits" and that the company has "repeatedly engaged in stalling tactics and has written proposals without meaningfully engaging with the union's proffers.... The union said the company proposed a new health care plan with a higher deductible and less coverage, and that workers pushed for higher wages in exchange."

Powell's said, "As a union workplace for 23 years, we are our union's biggest supporter. We deeply value our employees and respect their right to engage in protected union activity, which includes a strike. We understand it can be part of the bargaining process, and we will honor and respect it."

Powell’s Books to close on Labor Day as hundreds of workers go on strike - oregonlive.com

“Labor Day.”- History

 Labor Day was created by the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.

Eugene V. Debs: In a Just Society, Every Day Would Be Labor Day

Reuther library/Exhibits/Labor Day/1890's (wayne.edu)

Walter P. Reuther Library (29373) Labor Day, Chicago, Illinois, 1947 (wayne.edu)

History of Labor Day | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

Why do We Celebrate Labor Day? What does it Mean? | PBS

1894—Pullman Strike & Labor Day (chicagology.com)