Essex County libraries to open on rotating basis despite strike

A handful of Essex County Library’s branches will open some time in January on a rotating basis, said library board chairman Richard Meloche on Wednesday.

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Five managers will run the libraries in Essex County starting in January if striking library workers remain on the picket line, says board chairman Richard Meloche.

“The message we are getting from people is they want services back,” Meloche said. “We are going to try and give them a little bit of service.”

Meloche’s ultimatum was made one day after the library workers, on strike for six months, strongly rejected the latest contract offer from the board. Meloche expects the plan to reopen libraries will be finalized at a board meeting on Thursday night.

“We have management staff with librarian backgrounds,” he said. “We hope to open our larger branches on a rotating basis.

“We will not be using scab labour,” Meloche added. “We will not use any new employees — just management staff.”

He indicated the branches most likely to be opened for “a couple hours” at a time so patrons can “get in and out” are Leamington, LaSalle, Tecumseh and Lakeshore. Exact times and schedules will be advertised on the library’s website and local newspapers, Meloche said. Other branches under consideration for opening include Kingsville and Amherstburg. There are 14 branches in total.

“There will be no programming — just basic book service and exchange,” he said.

CUPE Local 2974 spokeswoman Lori Wightman said the board can open the libraries, “but that’s not returning services.”

“The public has said they want our services returned,” she said. “That can include looking out for patrons in nursing homes or sitting with a child during story time. They don’t just want a person behind a desk, but asking for a return of the workforce.”

She said striking workers will picket outside any branch that opens and will slow patrons as they attempt to enter.

“We will be educating people,” Wightman said. “I don’t anticipate there will be a lot of patrons trying to get in the library to begin with. This is not what people want. They want librarians back to work.”

Union leaders say the only “sticking point” is the board’s instance on switching short-term sick time to a third-party insurer.

But Meloche believes striking workers do not have a full grasp on what a third-party insurer means for them in terms of sick time provisions.

“We want to sit down with them,” he said. “From Day 1, they have known we wanted a third-party insurer. We will go through it with them again. There are still a lot of misconceptions on what the plan does or doesn’t do.”

Essex County’s inside and outside workers already accepted a third-party insurer in their contract settlement, as have a couple dozen workers with the county’s roads department, plus county management staff, Meloche said.

“We are absolutely willing to sit down and talk so they can understand what third-party insurance is all about.”

Wightman was angered by the suggestion those on the picket line do not grasp what a third-party insurer means to them.

“Given our education and experience, does the library board and Mr. Meloche think we are too stupid to grasp or understand what a third-party means,” she said. “We understand everything and we are saying ‘no thank you.’”

Wightman was also upset Meloche and the board are attempting to connect them with Essex County inside and outside workers who recently accepted a third-party sick time insurance in their contract settlement.

“We are not county employees,” she said. “We are employees of the library board.”

Wightman said three county municipalities — Essex, Kingsville and Amherstburg — recently signed off on new employee contracts with no third-party sick time provision.

“Our sick time provisions are good and suitable for us,” she said. “They fit our circumstances and for us to move to (third-party) is a big jump. I have yet to find a library system with a third-party provider. It is not the industry standard.”

Wightman said the union is willing to go back to the bargaining table at any point, but “what we want is to get back to the table and negotiate.”

dbattagello@postmedia.com

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