Vancouver PL To Reopen After Strike Settlement
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 10/22/2007
More than 71 percent of 775 striking Vancouver Public Library, BC, workers voted October 19 in favor of a new contract, nearly three months after they walked off the job on July 26. Library staff are back at work today, with the system scheduled to reopen on October 24. “We are going back knowing we have made important advances towards the long-term goal achieving pay equity,” said CUPE Local 391 President Alex Youngberg.Some workers were bumped up a pay grade according to a mediator's recommendations, but the union’s bargaining committee acknowledged that “more than half of our membership have not had this work fully recognized in this new collective agreement.” The contract involves a 17.5 per cent increase over five years, similar to that accepted by two other groups of striking Vancouver municipal workers a week earlier. The agreement sets up a joint committee on job classifications to address lingering concerns about pay equity.
