[Publib] Settlement

[James Casey]

My colleague on ALA Council, Sue Kamm, raises some good points, but I
would be extremely hesitant to advocate a "blue flu" or shut down of
public libraries for one day with objectives that are not clearly
defined.  A larger bargaining unit across the state university system
with specific salary objectives for every faculty member system is a lot
different than a general urging that library employees receive better
remuneration.  

 

Teacher's unions can cause a school district to shut down and leave
thousands of kids "home for the day" while parents are out working and
saddled with child care worries. Public libraries would not have the
immediacy and urgency of impact if they shut their doors for a day.   A
one day shutdown might inflame taxpayers without having sufficient
leverage for a decent remedy.  

 

James B. Casey - my own views

Director of the Oak Lawn Public Library

ALA Council Member - candidate for re-election

 

 

 

 

________________________________

From: Sue Kamm [mailto:suekamm at mindspring.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 10:40 AM
To: James Casey; Backwage at aol.com; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Publib] Settlement

 

We can learn some lessons from this contract.  The union bargained for
the contract statewide, not campus by campus.  A bargaining unit of
24,000 workers has more clout than one of fewer than 500 (or even 100)
library workers.  The union also threatened a rolling strike against the
Cal State system.  

 

How might public library workers learn from this?  Public employees may
not be able to strike based on state laws.  However, nothing stops us
from getting massive cases of "blue flu" (so called because police
officers have used the tactic of calling in sick en masse).  

 

If library workers were to engage in some kind of job action - be it a
strike, informational picketing, door-to-door leafleting, or work
slowdowns - how much would that affect the library's system?  Would
other unionized workers honor the strike or support the other job
actions?  How much would library stakeholders miss if a library closed
for a day?

 

BTW, I think a good way to celebrate National Library Workers Day would
be to shut libraries down by engaging in job actions.



Your friendly CyberGoddess and candidate for re-election as
Councilor-at-large,
Sue Kamm
Inglewood/Los Angeles, CA
Truest of the Blue, Los Angeles Dodgers Think Blue Week 2000
Visit my blog:  http://suekamm.blogspot.com
email:  suekamm [at] mindspring.com
When you absolutely, positively HAVE to know, ASK A LIBRARIAN!
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