zamiel2 writes “Technically there is still a media blackout so there is no official word, however one of the members of the library board has leaked the details to the CBC:
Striking library workers and the City of Vancouver have reached a tentative deal and voting is expected to take place over the weekend.According to a memo from City Manager Judy Rogers, the two sides came to an agreement Wednesday afternoon.
The union’s bargaining committee will “fully” recommend acceptance of the settlement to the 800 members belonging to CUPE Local 391, the memo says.”
Spelling 😛
Well of course that should be “Library staff” in the title. It’s not a Canadian spelling or anything: I just got too excited typing it in.
Vote Friday is confirmed
For those interested, the vote will indeed happen Friday, October 18th.
See: MEETING AND VOTE TOMORROW from the CUPE391 blog. (CUPE391 is the library workers of the Vancouver Public Library union)
Fantastic
I am so happy that the library workers got a 3.5% annual raise. Vacation and sick pay credit that would have accrued had they actually gone to work, whistleblower rules, a $1000 signing bonus (for union members that don’t work there yet?) No loss in senority (since they didn’t hire anyone who would they be senior to the same people they would be senior to had they gone to work) and limits on contracting out.
I’m sure it was worth it, all those weeks without their salaries, and the reception from the patrons who think they are complete arseholes they will receive when they get back to work.
The incompetent at my public library get 5% raises and they don’t belong to a union.
I am sure they are quite happy about their victory! Deluded in that thet feel the union did them any good. I see they got those salaries that the parking ticket clerks recieve that they fought so hard for.
Where I come from we call that a loss.
Now get back to work.
Re:Fantastic
By all means, accept anything that Management offers, ’cause we should be grateful for even that. Probably should drop to ours knees and kiss their shoes.
Of course you can thank your vacation pay, sick pay, 40 hour work week, etc…, to all those idiotic Union folk who went on strike, despite the hardship, to stand up for what was right.
I’m not sure how you came to the conclusion that the patrons will think the staff are arseholes. Are you psychic? When we nearly went on strike (although a LONG time ago), we heard nothing but encouragement from our patrons.
Re:Fantastic
Where did I say accept anything management offers? I think people should be paid for their work based upon their individual contributions, not because they have been there a certain number of years, not because the parking ticket clerk gets a different wage, not because all librarians who have worked here for 10 years should be paid between x and y.
Some people work harder than others, some people are slackers and layabouts. They should not be paid the same. I have yet to meet a union member who did not know exactly what the minimum required from him or her was.
I have no idea what the minimum required from me is, nor do I wish to know. I perfer to do an exceptional job and be appreciated and compensated for it. I don’t need to join a group of layabouts to pull my wages down to an average of theirs and mine.
While you may have heard only encouragement from your patrons (and in Canada where there is more of a ‘all for one and one for all’ culture – not that that is necessarily a bad thing this is to be expected as they are very pro union up North) but what about those from whom you did not hear. I doubt everyone was pleased that you walked out.
I still don’t see any benefit to your strike. You lost moneny because were not paid your wages, and the library was closed to patrons during the pendency of your walk out. It seems you could have stayed on the job and negotiated in good faith and benefitted much more.
Re:Fantastic
I think you, in part, misunderstood, and probably becaue I was less than clear. My library almost went on strike.. and this was quite a while ago. I don’t work for the Vancouver PL. I’m sure there would have been some who would not have been happy. But those are also the ones who are probably not happy that I’m earning more than the minimum wage while being a public employee.
If you don’t strike, you have no bargaining position with Management. You will always end up accepting whatever deal Management feels like giving you. Unless your job is covered by binding arbitration.
There are slackers and lay-abouts — and it has nothing to do with Union membership. That is the nature of the beast. However, who gets to decide who is doing an “exceptional” job? Management? Merit pay sounds good, but if it is up to management to determine who is meritorious, then you also have to accept that Management will always apply a standard that is fair to all and won’t pick on employees who might be exceptional, but whom they don’t like.
They may not earn back what they lost. But without the strike, they could have very well been less well off, and lost even more in the long run.
Re:Fantastic
I did misunderstand, I thought you were with Vancouver PL, sorry about that.
I think I can do a better job fending for myself that joining a union. I’ve never joined one. I’ve only worked one place that had one (government job) and I didn’t join.
Of course all I said is absolutely inconsequential as I do not live in Vancouver (althogh with it 80F outside now I would much rather be there), nor do I work in a public library any more, nor do I hire union workers – there are no unions for the one person I could possibly hire.
I do think that unions are at this time more of a hinerance than a benefit. I don’t dispute that unions at one time we remarkably valuable in that they protected workers from dangers to which they were exposed – child labor, sewatshops, garment factory fires that kill workers, hazardous jobs with no safety precautions, unliveable piecework wages, and many other things. But I think that regulation now does more for the worker than unions. We have OSHA and FMLA (in the states I’m not up on labor law in BC – or any part of Canada for that matter) EEOC and the Department of Labor and other regulatory bodies. I feel they do much for the worker and don’t take dues out of his pay envelope.
Most importantly I believe in the dignity of all work, and the Human Right to work to support oneself and one’s family – a right that outweighs man made national borders.
Which brings up the idea of unions and workers associations in some third world countries. In the US we think it is horrible it some 11 year old sews sneakers all day, but frankly sewing sneakers beats picking trash at the dump – a very dangerous activity to which many children resort because of the workers groups funded and encouraged by western influences. Certainly I’d rather have all children in school with a full belly, but when that is not possibly I’d rather they be making shoes than dodging the earthmovers to pick food and tin cans from freshly dumped garbage in Guatemala City’s dump.
We are very complacent and we refuse to work when a parking ticket clerk makes more than a library clerk. Our troubles are minute compared to those in the third world.
Unions are not the panacea they many have been a century ago. Organized labor is rife with corruption and graft. I’ll never join a union as I see no benefit in it for myself, and it concerns me that others hand their ability to excel at work, their ability to demonstrate just how good they are, their ability to be they best they can be over to the unions so they can be the average like the rest of the union members.
Overall more harm than good.