Locals 2186 and 2187 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees asked for the injunction to prevent the library administration from designating a total of 20 branches as express libraries that would be open only four hours a day and staffed by paraprofessionals. They have filed a grievance against the city and an unfair-labor-practice complaint with the state, alleging that the city failed to negotiate with the unions before making the service cuts.
Ten branches had gone to express hours by the end of March, and library officials say that will save the city as much as $800,000 annually. However, many residents oppose the plan and testified against it for three hours at a March 17 public hearing.
The judge’s action also postpones the layoffs of 12 library employees who received pink slips March 28.
The city council will hold hearings April 6 on the Free Library’s 2005–06 budget, and the nonprofit Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia—which has gathered some 20,000 signatures on a petition against the service cuts—has registered to request funding to keep all the branches open six full days and staffed with professional librarians.
Posted April 1, 2005.