{"id":27465,"date":"2012-03-19T17:33:05","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T21:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=27465"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:20:30","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:20:30","slug":"dont-mess-with-library-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/03\/19\/dont-mess-with-library-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t mess with library workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When it comes to picking a fight, taking on Toronto Public Library\u2019s workers is about as dumb as it gets.<\/p>\n

Councillor Paul Ainslie<\/a>, chair of the city\u2019s Library Board, has decided to drop the gloves with 2,300 mostly female part-time workers who are known for the beloved service they provide at TPL\u2019s 98 branches. Modest, innovative and willing to stretch a public dollar as far as it can go, library workers are everything citizens should hope for in a public service and are now on strike.<\/p>\n

When other municipal workers went on strike in 2009 over the elimination of the sick bank provision in their collective agreements, TPL\u2019s union accepted the concession without a work stoppage. The union also gave management more flexibility to assign work (I was on the Library Board at that time).<\/p>\n

So when a group of workers who have made such reasonable requests of their employer for so many years stands up to say that the Library Board is making them an unreasonable offer, I find it impossible to dismiss their claim. At issue is the Library Board’s demands to rollback job security provisions, increase the number of part-time workers, and make it more difficult for part-time workers to eventually get full-time work.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Far from the caricature that the mayor has painted of our public servants, these are people who have earned my support through their daily professionalism.<\/p>\n

With a recent poll<\/a> showing that over 60% of Torontonians feel like I do about library workers, Ainslie \u2013 who championed library branch closures last year and today told the Sun<\/em><\/a>, “I think there is a big difference between people’s love of libraries and love of library unions” \u2013 is living in his Executive Committee bubble. Ainslie\u2019s problem is that his bubble is about to burst. With 60% support for workers and 75% support for libraries, it isn’t just the downtown elite that will be on councillors; it will be Ford’s voters, too.<\/p>\n

Last year, when the Ford administration was pushing draconian service cuts on Torontonians many campaigns emerged to defend important city programs. Save Riverdale Farm! Don\u2019t cut TTC service! Keep your hands off community grants! But if awards were to be given for organization, the campaign to save our libraries run by the Toronto Public Library Workers\u2019 Union would take the gold. Using catchy phrases, impassioned pleas and celebrity endorsements, TPLW president Maureen O\u2019Reilly channeled all of that support into a single petition.<\/p>\n

A poorly kept secret of political organizing is that petitions are an excellent vehicle to collect contact information for people that support your cause. That\u2019s why an activist might be thrilled to get a petition with \u201conly\u201d a hundred names. But O\u2019Reilly\u2019s petition wasn\u2019t tiny by any measure; it garnered well over 50,000 signatories.<\/p>\n

Advantage: library workers.<\/p>\n

The only question now is if Ainslie and the Library Board will do the right thing or if city council will be forced to take the matter out of their hands when those 50,000 people \u2014 representing the view of the majority of Torontonians \u2014 demand their libraries be reopened and a fair deal for library workers.<\/p>\n

photo by Wylie Poon<\/a><\/p>\n

Adam is a former Toronto Library Board member from 2007-2010<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to picking a fight, taking on Toronto Public Library\u2019s workers is about as dumb as it gets. Councillor Paul Ainslie, chair of the city\u2019s Library Board, has decided to drop the gloves with 2,300 mostly female part-time workers who are known for the beloved service they provide at TPL\u2019s 98 branches. Modest,Continue reading “Don’t mess with library workers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21763],"tags":[1328,976,408,5134,1174,16543,87,18149,426,5327,19527,19525,19524,19526,8263],"class_list":["post-27465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-services","tag-adam","tag-chair","tag-councillor","tag-executive-committee","tag-ford","tag-ford-administration","tag-libraries","tag-library-board","tag-mayor","tag-paul-ainslie","tag-sick-bank-provision","tag-toronto-library-board","tag-toronto-public-library-workers-union","tag-tplw-president","tag-wylie-poon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDon't mess with library workers - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/03\/19\/dont-mess-with-library-workers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don't mess with library workers - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When it comes to picking a fight, taking on Toronto Public Library\u2019s workers is about as dumb as it gets. 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