As Labor War Escalates, Victoria, BC, Library To Close Indefinitely
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 2/15/2008
- Five-month dispute
- Library says $50K CAD lost monthly
- Will there be negotiation?
The five-month labor dispute between Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 410 and the nine-branch Greater Victoria Public Library, BC, which has included rotating strikes totaling ten days, lunch hour closings, and the unauthorized waiving of fines and fees by the union, has escalated to the point where management has chosen a forceful countermeasure, announcing a lockout to take effect on Sunday, February 17, at 5:01pm. "Given the continuing strike by CUPE 410 and the adverse impact on library operations, the lockout measure is, at this point, the only viable option," said Christopher Graham, Chair of the Library Board for the Greater Victoria Public Library, in a statement.
"The strike activities by the union are having a severe fiscal impact and the library is losing important streams of revenue, while employees are continuing to be paid," said Graham. According to the Province, programs have been cancelled, computer terminals shut down, and the library has lost $50,000 CAD a month because union members have refused to collect fines and fees. For more than two months, they had waived fines and fees, until the Labour Relations Board deemed it unauthorized in January; union workers still haven’t collected fines and fees, though patrons can go to an office staffed by managers.
Graham urged "employees to ask their union representatives to return to the negotiating table to work out a fair collective agreement that meets the needs of all parties." The union scoffed in response, saying that the "library board is punishing the public to make their point, which is that they don't want pay equity." CUPE 410 President Ed Seedhouse said that the union had been rejected in at least four attempts to go back to the bargaining table. The Greater Victoria Labour Relations Association, which represents the library, declared in October that it believes the library "has fulfilled its obligations under the job evaluation and pay equity initiative of the 1992 collective agreement." The union disagrees.
