Another Library Strike Emerges in British Columbia
Jennifer Pinkowski -- Library Journal, 09/11/2007
Like their colleagues in nearby Vancouver, librarians in British Columbia's capital city, Victoria, went on strike briefly on September 7 after contract negotiations with city and library officials stalled. The walkout lasted only three hours, but it shut down all eight branches of the Greater Victoria Public Library. The strike was the first in an "escalating series of job actions designed to put pressure on the employer to bring them back to the bargaining table with a mandate to negotiate on our key issues," Ed Seedhouse, president of CUPE 410, told Library Journal. The union represents the 220 workers in the library system.Barry Holmes, CEO of the library system, confirmed to the Victoria Times Colonist that "an impasse has been declared."
Eight months of negotiations have failed to produce an agreement over pay equity for library workers to bring their salaries on par with other municipal workers, something the union says the city agreed to in 1992, according to documents on overduepromise.ca. "It's a long sad story," Seedhouse said. According to a table on the web site that compares library jobs to "comparable" posts at Victoria City Hall, a parking-lot attendant earns $20.03 an hour, while a library clerk earns $17.58. An MLS librarian is paid $27.66 and hour, while a research analyst with a comparable level of education makes $30.97.
Greater Victoria librarians have been closely following developments in Vancouver, where librarians have been on strike since late July. "While the folks in Vancouver do indeed inspire us, we are on strike for our own reasons," he said. "We've been shamelessly cribbing from their web site, however." CUPE 410 has started its own strike blog.
Seedhouse said it's too early to forecast what the results of the walkout will be on contract negotiations, but says the strike generated "lots of positive response from the public." He said the strikers were even more enthusiastic. "From the picket lines, the main question I got was, 'Why are we doing this three-hours-at-a-time stuff? Let's just hit the bricks.' We are having to hold them back."
