King County Staffers Unionize

The 550 staffers at the 42-branch King County Library System, WA, voted 298–157 December 4 in favor of unionizing. Unions often are used by staffers to bargain for better wages, but King County is one of the nation's top-paying libraries, so salaries were not a factor.

Library Director Bill Ptacek said that staffers are concerned, however, about the area's flagging economy. In November 2001, Washington citizens passed referendum 747, which was a property tax limitation, and 99 percent of the library's funding comes from property tax. Ptacek said shortly after that he was told that the union was in the process of organizing: "Although we have the funding for 2003/04, there was concern over what happens after that."

He said also that there is a strong history of unions in the area and in libraries and that the library was the largest nonunion public agency. Ptacek doesn't foresee any drastic alterations but believes that the union will provide a more formal means for communicating with the staff.

Bill Keenan, director of organizing for Washington State Council of County and City Employees, the union the librarians will join, told LJ that the campaign has been ongoing for 12 months and at no time did the issue become wages or benefits. "First and foremost, the staff want to have a voice in the everyday operations of the library that affect their conditions of employment. That would include changes in policies and procedures. They felt they didn't have an equal partnership with library administration." Keenan concurred that concerns about possible layoffs also played a role.