Public Employee Press

Queens Library Local 1321
Cyber fightback saves jobs, restores budget cuts

Facing a possibile 200 layoffs in the fiscal year 2012 budget, Queens Library workers harnessed new media tools to fight back. The cyberactivism of Queens Library Guild Local 1321 paid off as City Council budget restorations in June prevented the layoffs.

Local 1321 lobbied together with the DC 37 Political Action Dept. and used Facebook and the local's Web site to organize their fightback campaign, which included members defending library services with traditional letter-writing, rallies and media outreach.

The campaign included rallies organized by activists at seven branches and the Central Library. Dates, times and encouragements to attend were posted on the Web site and Facebook. After the rallies, Local 1321 President John Hyslop posted reports and members added comments and photos. Hyslop thanked politicians and other supporters by e-mail.

"The genesis of our digital communication is that we came to realize that the leadership wasn't communicating effectively with the membership," said Hyslop. "Facebook gave us a private forum where members felt comfortable discussing and learning about union issues."

Vice President of Librarians Kacper Jurecki played a leading role in setting up the Facebook page. The platform allows for free-flowing discussion, but members are warned that mean-spirited and hurtful remarks as well as union politicking are prohibited.

The local restructured its Web site with the help of the AFL-CIO, the DC 37 Communications Dept. and DC 37's national union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. To learn the site's template-based content management system, Hyslop, Publications Chair Jane Jacobs and Librarian Representative Mike Wong only needed to take a two one-hour long Webinars.

These days, the local uses Facebook and its Web site to keep members informed and convince them to get more active.

Local 1321 also runs an e-mail group, though it has taken a back seat to the Facebook page and Web site. The local has no immediate plan to eliminate its newsletter but eventually may distribute it electronically.

The beauty of Facebook, Hyslop said, is that it's very easy to write a word-processing document and paste it into Facebook. Hyslop's laptop has Wi-fiInternet access, so he can post items from virtually anywhere.