Some 180 union workers at Regina Public Library in Saskatchewan, Canada, went on strike April 16, forcing the central library and all eight of its branches to close. Library officials and representatives from Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1594 said in the April 18 Regina Leader Post that no new negotiations have been scheduled. Workers staged a series of rotating strikes earlier in the month, but the union’s acting president, Rosemary Oddie, called a full strike after management failed to offer a satisfactory contract.
Library Director Sandy Cameron told reporters that the library’s negotiators had already exceeded their authorized terms, which includes a basic 3% pay raise for each of three years, plus an additional 1% for some employees based on the results of a job evaluation process. “We’ve put our best offer out there,” Cameron said. “We’ve got no flexibility.”
The predominantly female employees believe they are suffering from gender-based discrimination, but Oddie said that the library’s proffered contract was insufficient to restore pay equity with other categories of workers.
Posted April 22, 2002.