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PEP April 2016
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Public Employee Press


Other Voices
The fight against contracting out library services

In an important move, the local linked the misguided contracting out to President and CEO Thomas Galante's exorbitant and illicit spending, which was the subject of a series of Daily News exposés. The scandal led the New York State Legislature to modify the library's bylaws. Galante and half the trustees were fired.

By JOHN HYSLOP


At Queens Public Library, we responded to the administration's contracting out schemes in the union way by holding demonstrations, reaching out to the media and working with the community and public servants.

In addition to reflecting our commitment to protecting the livelihood of our fellow brothers and sisters, the campaigns show the important role public employee unions play as financial watchdogs.

The local has successfully ended or scaled back two contracts at Queens Public Library that outsourced work ordinarily performed by union employees.

In 1999, the Queens Library administration made the unprecedented, yet legal, move to contract out its security.

The library for years employed its own guards, who provided security at Central Library, Flushing Branch and locations with public safety problems. The new contract eliminated the jobs of the union security guards, except for three Local 1321 members, who were restricted to serving at Central Library and Flushing.

In the summer of 2013, the administration contracted out its custodial services, filling the positions of union custodians with contract custodians. Management justified this move by claiming it would save money. Yet, the Library refused to provide the union with evidence. The administration also ignored the extremely negative impact this would have on the staff's morale.

We informed Queens elected officials that the library was using our tax dollars to eliminate decent paying union jobs. We held rallies in protest, launched a petition drive and carried out a Twitter campaign. We received extensive press coverage and strong support from elected officials. Nevertheless, the administration refused to budge, ignoring the extremely negative attention.

In an important move, the local linked the misguided contracting out to President and CEO Thomas Galante's exorbitant and illicit spending, which was the subject of a series of Daily News exposes. The scandal led the New York State Legislature to modify the library's bylaws. Galante and half the trustees were fired.

The reforms introduced by the legislature included a requirement that the library follow freedom of information laws. That gave the local a powerful new tool for its work against contracting out.

The local filed a freedom of information request with the library to discover what the library spent on the custodial worker and security guard contracts.

The request exposed how our members do the custodial and security work more efficiently than contracted workers. The administration soon eliminated all custodial contract work.

Provided with five years of data, the local learned that library spent on average $793,218 per year - a total of $3,966,093 - on contract security guards. Our analysis showed if the library hired 10 security guards (the number of security guards before contracting out), the cost would have been $464,624 (including salary and benefits).

The union brought this information to the administration's attention. Both parties agreed the library would see significant saving by spending less on contracted guards and hiring union security guards. Everyone benefited from the union's oversight.

As more public services get contracted out, state and local governments must adopt transparency rules for contracts for all publicly funded institutions.

We must have strong unions and an independent press that are able to use freedom of information rules to ensure our government is spending our tax dollars wisely. We must be responsible government caretakers.

John Hyslop is an archivist and president of Queens Library Guild Local 1321.








 
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