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Strike Closes Vancouver’s 22 BranchesSome 790 employees of the Vancouver (B.C.) Public Library went on strike July 26, the first such walkout in the library’s 77 years as a unionized workplace. The action shut down the system’s 22 branches as well as its online services. Picket lines went up at the downtown Central Library but not at the branches. The full strike followed one-hour walkouts at several branches that began July 24. Alex Youngberg, president of the librarians’ union, CUPE Local 391, said in the July 27 Vancouver Sun that the main issues under dispute were job security and contracting out of services. The librarians join more than 5,000 municipal workers in Vancouver and North Vancouver that had already gone on strike. Meanwhile, 90% of the more than 220 unionized workers at the Greater Victoria (B.C.) Public Library voted in mid-July to authorize a strike. CUPE Local 410 President Ed Seedhouse said the top issues were achieving pay equity with Victoria civic workers and fair treatment of auxiliary staff, including pages. He noted that pay equity had been promised in 1992 to start in 1996, “but now that promise is more than 10 years overdue. You wouldn’t keep your books overdue for that long. Nor should the municipal politicians leave a promise that long overdue.” Posted July 27, 2007. |
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