Public Employee Press

Union joins fight to add library funding



DC 37 has joined a coalition in a campaign to fight for six-days a week service and other improvements at the city's three public library systems.

The campaign is to lobby for as much as a $65 million increase in operating expenses for next year's library budget. The campaign will also fight for an additional $1 billion for the three systems capital budgets.

If successful, this effort will allow the city's libraries to hire as many as 900 new workers. In recent years, the libraries have been hit hard with deep spending cuts and downsizing.

Since last year, DC 37 participated in monthly meetings hosted by City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer to study funding issues. Van Bramer is a former administrator at Queens Library, and he chairs the City Council's Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations Committee.

DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, Assistant Director Susan Chin of the DC 37 Political Action and Legislation Dept., and the presidents of the union's four library locals attended these meetings, along with the heads of New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Borough Public Library. Other participants include the Center for an Urban Future and Urban Librarians Unite. Garrido is heading the campaign on behalf of the union.

"We are committed with the three administrations to what's best for everyone," said John Hyslop, president of Queens Library Local 1321. "This would put the libraries on much more secure financial ground, significantly expand services and staffing. This will pay off for the public."

"The library has not been able to address its deep personnel cuts by making scheduling changes or shifting around the staff," said Cuthbert Dickenson, president of Quasi-Public Employees Local 374, which represents blue-collar workers at the New York Public Library, which serves Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island. "The defunding that has occurred over the years has been bad for the workers and bad for the patrons."

"The influx of major funding to the libraries would ensure that the city's funding is more certain," said Local 1930 President Valentin Colon. "The annual 'budget dance' that has been going on for years has created anxiety among the staff and been a disservice to the public."

"We very much want to work with the libraries, City Council and the community," Local 1482 President Eileen Muller said. "The city is supposed to support us, not to treat as us stepchildren. We are really fighting for the survival of the libraries. We need more money."