The Cincinnati Enquirer Reports Upset that some co-workers lost their jobs and others accepted lesser ones, employees at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County may unionize.
“(Library employees) essentially made a lifetime commitment to the public. This is a one-sided commitment. There is no commitment by the library,” said Pam Gogulski, an organizer for the Service Employees International Union.
Between 600 and 650 library employees could be eligible to join the union, she said.
Good Article
This is a good article to write up for the library journals. How to start a union in a library, from scratch, is a good topic. Certainly, as more and more cuts are being put on the backs of library staff, more and more libraries need to unionize. A “How To” article on the goofs and pitfalls of organizing would be good for the whole profession.
As to the argument that this unionization would lead to an “adversarial relationship” is funny. Already the staff is being cut and positions downgraded because the library management doesn’t want to follow through with politician’s demands to reduce costs by also reducing services, so they screw the staff instead. It’s easier to kill the library co-workers off than it is to oppose politicians who would be outraged that their budget cuts leads to actual closing library buildings.
The library needs adversarial relationships if they don’t have managers with backbone. Someone has to call the spade a bloody shovel, and if management won’t, then the union should.
Don’t get mad, organize!
Not this again…
I’m not sure how this will help. The State of Ohio can say “no funding” to the union just as easily as to the administration. They’ve pretty much already made up their minds.
Re:Not this again…
Collectively Ohioans “drank the Kool-aid” for some odd reason. Things are not expected to get better here at all. The three contenders for the Republican nomination for Governor do not seem to regard libraries as a priority and the Democratic front-runner…umm…well…he is kinda weird. Things are not expected to get much better in terms of political will here relative to libraries…
Re:Not this again…
I’m in Ohio too, so I know what its like. And I’ve had first-hand experience with union organizations. I quit during a union organization many years ago, and I’ve talked recently to those who have worked there since then, and I can’t say it has solved their problems. I’m not against unions by any stretch of the imagination, but the problems a union is designed to solve were not the problems they were having. That particular library is just as hostile as it always was.