Greater Victoria PL, BC, Librarian Lockout Over
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 4/2/2008
- Workers locked out since February 17
- Librarians gain a version of pay equity
- Libraries to reopen next week
A pay equity deal welcomed by library workers has ended months of labor unrest at the Greater Victoria Public Library, BC, where workers at the nine branches have been locked out since February 17 and had conducted a series of job actions since September. Of more than 200 library workers who voted Monday, some 85 percent ratified the Memorandum of Agreement reached between Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 410 and the library. The library is expected to open early next week.
"There was a compromise, but frankly, if I'd been offered this compromise a year ago, I would’ve taken it,” CUPE spokesman Ed Seedhouse told LJ. He noted that an agreement in 1992 called for library jobs to be compared with others in the city; a study in 2000 found that many library workers should get a one-grade boost in pay. Given that Victoria pays its city workers more than many other communities, and since the library’s service area has expanded, the union agreed to have worker's pay compared with two other municipalities on an averaging basis. Over four years, pay will be adjusted, and the typical worker will gain $1.50 to $3 CDN an hour.
Though the library wanted to stop paying a premium for Sunday work, the union “held the line,” Seedhouse said. Also, the 35 FTE pages, some of whom work nearly full-time, have been defined as auxiliary employees, getting salary in lieu of benefits. Under the agreement, the corps of pages will be restructured, with nine full-time positions—senior pages—getting benefits. The other pages will get a salary boost.
