Solidarity in Wisconsin | Blatant Berry
It isn’t just self-interest, although that is reason enough By John N. Berry III Mar 15, 2011Librarians must stand in solidarity with the embattled public employees of Wisconsin as they struggle to hold on to the collective bargaining rights they have earned and won over decades. It is not just simple self-interest that makes their struggle ours, although that would be reason enough to oppose the attack. It is also a matter of our values, our fundamental beliefs. From the early roots of the profession, librarians have been champions of the rights granted to all Americans by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, including “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government....”
Now Gov. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin legislature propose to end collective bargaining rights for most public employees in the state. Although the governor claims the attack is a budgetary necessity, the unions have already made the fiscal concessions he has demanded. There was no negotiation. The governor has not invited public sector unions to negotiate.
So, of course, we must applaud the librarians of Wisconsin and their Wisconsin Library Association (WLA), currently led by President Rhonda Puntney. WLA postponed its annual Library Legislative Day, as the protests had disrupted the Capitol. Puntney explained that a message about the importance of libraries might be lost in the turmoil of the massive outcry triggered by the governor’s proposal.
Instead, the WLA board unanimously voted to oppose the governor’s budget repair bill and urged WLA members to join rallies in Madison. Puntney was “guardedly optimistic” that the bargaining rights might be saved, even though the budget outlook still seems grim.
As Sharon McQueen of the School of Information and Library Studies at the University of Wisconsin, and a 2004 LJ Mover & Shaker, reported to LJ (bit.ly/fKTqn5), hundreds of librarians joined teachers, nurses, off-duty police officers, firefighters, and others in the Madison protests. The group included dozens of LIS students, librarians, and library staff. Police officials said the February 26 protests in Madison drew the largest crowd ever seen there, even bigger than the ones against the Vietnam War.
We also praise American Library Association (ALA) president Roberta Stevens and other ALA leaders for their fast response in opposition to Walker’s scheme. Librarians are threatened when any workers in the public sector are demonized and their rights put in jeopardy. The statement at the beginning of the Union Library Workers community on ALA Connect (connect.ala.org/node/71716) beautifully articulates the issue:
Unions contribute to a stable, productive workforce—where workers have a say in improving their jobs. Library workers in public, academic and school libraries have organized in unions for better wages, working conditions and benefits. Unionization as a human right was included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as Article 23 when the UDHR was issued in 1948. Sixty years later, unions continue to be viewed as fundamental to democracy.
Governor Walker’s ideological attempt to crush public employee unions has spawned similar proposals in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and elsewhere. Stevens and the ALA leadership quickly spoke out, noting that while governments face deficits, that challenge “should not serve as an opportunity to strip away the hard-won right of workers to collectively bargain.”
“The ALA supports library employees in seeking equitable compensation and recognizes the principle of collective bargaining as an important element of successful labor-management relations. We affirm the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively with their employers, without fear of reprisal,” Stevens concluded, speaking as the elected voice of ALA’s 63,000 members.
We couldn’t have said it better!
| Author Information |
| John N. Berry III (jberry@mediasourceinc.com) is Editor-at-Large, LJ |
