Public Employee Press


While NY Public Library contracts out guards
Local 1321 wins in new Queens Library deal

Queens Public Library agreed to hire 15 new Security Guards as it cuts back on contracting out.

Meanwhile, the New York Public Library is moving in the opposite direction, reducing its in-house security staff while employing a private security company to do the work.

Local 1321 and Queens Public Library signed the Security Guard agreement on March 11.

The hiring will bring the in-house Security Guard staffing to its level in 1999. After contracting out the work to a private company years ago, the library slowly got rid of all but one of its guards through layoffs and attrition.

As it fought the contracting out over the years, Local 1321 charged that the library's use of contracted guards mirrored the low-wage practices in the private sector.

"We are very happy that the library finally agreed to reduce its use of contracted guards, because these new positions will be union jobs with decent pay and good benefits," Local 1321 President John Hyslop said.

The library agreed to the hiring after Local 1321 obtained personnel data through a freedom of information request that enabled the union to show that doing the work in house is more efficient. (To see Hylop's op-ed on the Local 1321's campaign against contracting out click here.)

Cuthbert Dickenson, president of Quasi-Public Employees Local 374, which represents blue-collar workers at NYPL, noted that the city's three public library systems have hired new workers thanks to a $43 million boost this year in their budgets for operations. But while NYPL has hired 12 new maintenance workers, it hasn't hired new guards, he said. Furthermore, Dickenson said, the library has transferred union-represented guards at the Mid-Manhattan Library to the nearby Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the system's main library, and replaced them with guards employed by Spartan Security Services.

The union is pressing for the library to assign in-house guards to the Donnell Library Center, which will soon reopen. But so far, the library has not informed the union whether it will employ private guards or its own guards there.

NYPL now employs about 100 Spartan security guards. Today, the number of Local 374 guards is down to 30 after the library steadily increased the contracted workforce in recent years. Apparently, the library plans to eliminate its own security workforce through attrition.

Under a second agreement with Local 1321, Queens Public Library will establish a new vacation policy that gives union members greater flexibility in scheduling their time off.

The vacation agreement scraps a change imposed by former President and CEO Thomas Galante, who was fired by the Board of Trustees on corruption charges in 2014. Under his policy, members accumulated vacation credit month-by-month.

The agreement entitles the full-time, union-represented staff to have their annual leave allotment credited to their annual leave balance at the beginning of the fiscal year (July 1). This will make it easier for members to schedule their vacation, though they still must request their supervisor's approval.

Floating holidays

Floating holidays and bonus days will continue to be credited in the month in which they are earned. For example, Lincoln's Birthday will be credited in February.

Members will continue to be allowed to carry over 10 days of annual leave from year-to-year.

The union team that worked out the agreements at Queens Public Library included Hyslop, Executive Vice President Margaret Gibson, Assistant Director Lisa Riccio of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept., Assistant General Counsel Meaghan Murphy and Rep Cynthia Padillo.