Five days before a strike date of July 31, union members at Stark County District Library in Canton, Ohio, were looking for ways to get back to the bargaining table by asking county commissioners to intervene with the library board.
The 156 members of the Service Employees International Union local 925 voted July 18 to send a 10-day strike notice to the state Employee Relations Board. On the same night, the library board passed a resolution to keep the library and its nine branches open in the event of a strike, according to the July 20 Akron Beacon Journal.
Workers have stayed on the job under an extension after the contract expired April 1. The union rejected the board’s final contract offer June 16, which included an annual 4% increase for the next three years.
County Commissioner President Gayle Jackson told the Journal she will urge the library board to continue negotiations. “A strike doesn’t solve the issue. A strike is a disaster,” she said.
Posted July 31, 2000.