Union employees of the County of Los Angeles Public Library joined other county workers in a series of one-day rolling strikes October 4. Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union is seeking a 15.5% raise over three years, but the county says it can’t give more than 9% because other unions have already accepted that amount.
Nancy Mahr, public information officer for the library system, told American Libraries that 737 employees out of the 1,006 scheduled to work that day did not show up.
“As workers came in, they were strategically redeployed” to the 13 libraries that remained open, she said. Mahr noted that “in some cases we couldn’t give full service” and that some locations closed one or two hours early. Sixty-seven libraries and the system’s three bookmobiles were closed.
Mahr said the union covers professional librarians, library assistants, aides, pages, clerical workers, and drivers. Of the system’s 1,612 staff, 97% are covered by the bargaining unit.
Although the union urged members to engage in work slowdowns when they returned to work, Mahr said it was too early to tell if library employees were participating.
Posted October 9, 2000.