Bargainers for the 2,400 librarians and library assistants employed at the Toronto (Ont.) Public Library reached an agreement with the administration February 28 on a new contract, thus averting a strike that would have closed down all of the library’s 98 branches, as well as its bookmobiles and telephone service.
The contract, which will expire at the end of 2001, is the first since the province amalgamated the city’s seven local governments into a single one at the beginning of 1998. The Toronto Globe and Mail reported February 29 that the terms cover job-security provisions, benefits for part-time employees, and extra pay for evening and weekend work.
Bruce Cochrane, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 416, had called for a strike three days earlier but later agreed to give the talks more time because “a very fragile framework for discussion had been achieved.” The union is expected to vote on the contract this week.
Posted March 6, 2000.