Bloomberg’s Budget to Decimate Queens Public Library

Bloomberg’s Budget to Decimate Queens Public Library
With John Hyslop, Pres., Queens Library Guild, Local 1321 , DC 37 AFSCME.
Library workers are fighting Mayor Bloomberg's proposed $25.3 http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmillion in budget cuts to the Queens Public Library. Since 2008, over 200 jobs have already been lost through attrition and layoffs. The current proposed 30% cut will result in library
hours being at their lowest level ever, less than in NYC’s budget crisis of the 1970s.
These cuts would slash library services; close branches 2-3 days a week; end free computer and Internet services; destroy the materials budget; and force 234 Library employees to be laid off. Local 1321 is sponsoring a demonstration outside the Central Library on Merrick Blvd.
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More info here.

Youngstown Librarians Ratify Contract

Public Librarian Association of Youngstown, which is affiliated with Service Employees International Union District 1199.

The board of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County has ratified an agreement with its librarians that includes a pay freeze and reductions in vacation and sick time.

The pact is with the Public Librarian Association of Youngstown, which is affiliated with Service Employees International Union District 1199.

Dial 1-800-Unionism Is Not the Answer

Dial 1-800-Unionism Is Not the Answer
by Steve Early

When the history of public sector de-unionization in the Midwest is written, its sad chroniclers will begin their story in Indiana. That's where Governor Mitch Daniels paved the way, six years ago, for more recent attacks on workers' rights in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan.

Daniels, a right-wing Republican, was elected in 2004. He got plenty of help from the Republican Governors Association, which that year received $500,000 from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as part of then-president Andy Stern's misbegotten but Obama-like embrace of bi-partisanship. (In his 2006 book, A Country That Works, Stern boasted about being the RGA's "largest contributor.")

Wichita Teachers Union: Plan to Replace High School Librarians will Shortchange Students.

Wichita teachers union say a plan to replace high school librarians with unlicensed clerks will shortchange students.

The library jobs are among 278 positions being eliminated as the Wichita district grapples with a $30 million budget shortfall. Allison said he consulted with building principals and others to determine cuts that would have the least impact on classrooms.

"This particular cut affects all high school students — all of them, not just some," said Larry Smith, a history teacher at East High School and a member of the United Teachers of Wichita representative assembly.


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Nepotism Questioned at Detroit Public Library

Nepotism rampant at Detroit libraries
1 in 6 staffers have relatives who work in strapped department

The union is concerned in general about wasteful library spending.

Countering the Siege-AFSCME

NYTimes- Countering the Siege-AFSCME
Gerald W. McEntee, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, in his Washington office.
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: April 12, 2011


Perhaps more than any other American, Gerald W. McEntee has surfed the rising tide of public sector unions to success and power. As leader of the largest union of state and local government workers for three decades, he has amassed enormous political influence and a huge campaign war chest that he has not hesitated to use to advance his union’s interests.

Perhaps more than any other American, Gerald W. McEntee has surfed the rising tide of public sector unions to success and power. As leader of the largest union of state and local government workers for three decades, he has amassed enormous political influence and a huge campaign war chest that he has not hesitated to use to advance his union’s interests.

read more here.

Right to Oorganize Trade Unions is a Fundamental Human Right.

"Collective Bargaining -- Essential to Democracy."
by Bruce T. Boccardy in MRZINE. April 11, 2011.


Collective bargaining was an integral component of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act. Prior to the law, employers could literally spy upon union members, interrogate, punish, blacklist, and terminate them without just cause. The Act clearly asserts the rights of collective bargaining in Section 7:

Employees shall have the right to self-organization; to form, join, or assist labor organizations; to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing; and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.

This language was affirmed by Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which identified the right to organize trade unions again as a fundamental human right.

Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Ohio Law is Attack on the American Dream

April 10, 2011.
Opponents of new union law rally in Ohio's capital
Melissa Cropper, a librarian for Georgetown schools in southwestern Ohio, said killing the law "is about saving the middle class and protecting the rights of workers. Corporations are getting all the breaks, and they're trying to balance the budget on the backs of the workers.
Thousands of people seeking to repeal Ohio's new collective bargaining law rallied Saturday at the Statehouse, vowing to get a referendum on the next ballot and promising to remember the political fight over the measure when they choose which candidates to support in future elections.
Preachers and public workers took turns at the microphone on a stage in front of the Statehouse steps, depicting the bill signed recently by first-term Republican Gov. John Kasich as an attack on unions and the American dream.