In the latest round of an apparent never-ending battle between the Tacoma Public Library and its employees, the library is attempting to lay-off five page employees.
Just
last December, the library had just settled a very contentious round of
contract negotiations with its two unions, the Library Employees, and the
Library Pages locals.
One
of the most hotly contested parts of those sometimes very bitter negotiations,
was a request from the Pages union to consolidate part-time page positions. At
that time, pages, the lowest paid of all library workers, were limited to
working less than 18 hours a week, and were ineligible for benefits. Under the
union’s proposal, when a page position became vacant, it would not be
re-filled. Instead, other employees would receive increased hours – where they
would be able to work up to 40 hours a week and receive benefits.
According
the union, the current controversy concerns a possible budget shortfall in the
funding of the new full-time page positions.
“We
understood the reductions were to be done by attrition over a two year period,”
said Dian Shearer, Chairman of the Pages Union local. “That was the consensus
of everyone in the negotiations.”
“They
told us, they told the city council that they had enough money in the budget to
fund the positions and the increased benefits,” said Carolyn Cohen, past Chair
of the Library Employees union. “Now they say we misunderstood, and that they
don’t have the money, and so they’re going to lay-off some people to make-up
the difference.” According to Cohen the disputed amount is around $50,000.
“Obviously,
we’re in favor of combining the page positions,” said Dian Shearer, “But they
should do it by attrition like they agreed, so the people aren’t adversely
impacted.”
The
union contends that patrons are being affected, as well. “Public services are
suffering already,” said Cohen.
Historically,
the library has always used around 1,700 Full-Time Equivalent hours of pages a
week, split between about 102 positions, said Cohen. Currently, the library is
using only about 1,400 hours a week – a reduction of about 300 hours from the
past. As a result, Cohen says it now takes as long as three weeks for returned
books to be reshelved. New books and videos may take up to three months to be
placed on the shelves. And higher-paid library employees are being called to
fill-in and perform essential duties previously done by pages.
“There
are a lot of people really concerned because we’re providing important services
to the public,” said Shearer, “And we’re concerned because we want the real
services and not just a lot of hype. If the reductions go through, it will
impact these services. And that’s truly unfortunate.”
“The
budget figures the library has produced just don’t add up,” said Cohen. “From
studying the data they gave us, it looks like they have the money to fund the
benefits, without laying anyone off.” She went on to note, “In the past three
years or so, they’ve spent over $200,000 with their anti-union labor-lawyers.
Now they want to reduce services to the public because the budget’s supposedly
$50,000 short. Is that justice?”
Library
spokesman, David Domkoski, disagrees with the union’s position. “There’s
nothing in the contract about attrition,” he said. He went on to state that the
library didn’t have a budget shortfall. He said the lay-offs were necessary to
fund the extra cost of creating the new 40 hour a week page positions, because
there hadn’t been enough attrition. He also flatly disagreed that patron
services have suffered.
“The
library is optimistic that by May 3, we’ll have a mutually agreeable solution
to these problems,” said Domkoski. He went on to add, “The library would be
happy to reopen negotiations on the issue of the new forty hour a week
positions. It’s up to the union to decide what they want to do.”