The suit charges that the library system wrongfully excluded the plaintiffs from the 550-member collective bargaining unit that had just formed with the September signing of the first-ever union contract with KCLS. The six workers, who were considered substitute or intermittent staff members, were fired so they could apply to become part of the library’s newly formed centralized labor pool.
Declining to comment on the suit itself, library Human Resources Manager Charlene Richards said in the March 30 Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “All we can tell you is those who made it in the pool met the criteria we’re looking for. They had to be consumer-friendly.”
“The reason they’re intermittents is because you’re laying them off out of order,” countered Scannell. “It’s a word game.”
Posted April 1, 2005.