“No confidence” Votes in WA, CA

Unions clash with directors over clustering, grievances

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 6/15/2006

Union library workers at the King County Library System (KCLS), Issaquah, WA, have voted overwhelmingly (92 percent of those voting) to express “no confidence” in the management of longtime director Bill Ptacek. The main reason cited is a new policy in which libraries are grouped into clusters, and the cluster manager can direct a worker to one of the other branches one day a week.

Susan Veltfort, president of Washington State Council of County and City Employees Local 1857, charged that Ptacek ignored workers until they had filed 30 grievances about the cluster plan. Ptacek told LJ that he held a meeting with union leaders and pledged to maintain better communication. Still, he didn't seem ready to abandon clustering, which he said could help the library deal with expanded service; there's no other library like KCLS, he said, “we're so big and so busy.”

Ptacek has his work cut out for him. Patrons at 19 of the 43 branches have, via their Friends groups, expressed dismay with his leadership. But the library board is committed to clusters as a project at least for the year. “We remain skeptical,” Veltfort told LJ.

Turbulence in Berkeley

The conflict between Berkeley Public Library (BPL), CA, director Jackie Griffin and local union reps—and some larger portion of the library staff—has ratcheted up a notch. Griffin's lawyer has threatened to sue the library board if the director is fired, alleging wrongful termination, the Berkeley Daily Planet reported. Further, 77 of the library's 120 union employees have signed a no-confidence statement regarding Griffin, according to the Service Employees International Union. The number is hard to confirm, because names are not provided; the union says that's because there's been retaliation against staffers.

Meanwhile, deputy director Vivian Pisano has announced her resignation from the library after some three months, saying she'd return to her old job at the San Francisco Public Library.

Griffin told LJ, “I have a vocal group of people who are not happy with my leadership, are not happy with new technologies.” One issue has been the library's adoption of an RFID system. “Underneath all this, there are incredibly cool things happening, like partnerships with the community.” She added, “I have the confidence of my management team and the support of an awful lot of line staff.” She said the board has asked the city attorney's office to investigate charges of retaliation, “so we can put them to rest.”