Keywords
Citation
Fitzsimmons, E. (1999), "Unions at work", The Bottom Line, Vol. 12 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.1999.17012aab.006
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited
Unions at work
Unions at work
Keywords: France, Libraries, Trade unions, USA
In November 1998, the Orlando Sentinel reported that 130 employees of the Orange County (FA) Library System had signed a petition to affiliate with a local union. This is apparently in response to what they consider an oppressive work environment. A petition with signatures from at least 30 percent of the library's more than 250 nonmanagerial employees was required before a staffwide vote could be taken on unionization. More than 50 percent of the employees signed. No date has been set for the vote. According to some staff members, workers who complain about their jobs are transferred to distant branches, some librarians have had their salaries capped indefinitely, and staff have no voice in the library's operations. However, Director Dorothy Field maintains that she has an open-door policy and that all transfers are made to meet the system's needs. "The only thing a union will do is take their money and drive a wedge between staff," she said. "I think it's very unfortunate our library staff is placed in this position because of a few disgruntled employees."
In Paris, France, 800 library staff members (out of 2,800) who had been on strike since October 20 over working conditions at the new Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris settled with the government on November 3. The new Bibliothèque Nationale opened October 9. A union representative said the government's concessions were sufficient to allow the staff members to return to work. Among the demands that the strikers won was their demand that the scholars' area and public reading area be closed Mondays through January 31 1999 and Monday mornings through June 30 1999.
Other complaints included a below-standard work environment, an inadequate automated system, and numerous untrained, temporary workers who were hired to speed up the opening. The breakdown of the library's new computer system, which jammed after only a few hundred entries, helped their cause.