After 3-year union campaign, New York Public Library raises pay to stem turnover. DC 37 presses other systems to increase salaries.

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Librarians represented by Local 1930 voted overwhelmingly April 14 to support a contract that provides an immediate 8 percent salary hike in addition to District Council 37’s union-wide wage gains.

The 167-30 vote capped a three-year struggle in which the local union pressed the New York Public Library system and the city to raise librarian salaries. The campaign involved members in street demonstrations, media outreach and political action.

Queensborough Public Library Guild Local 1321 and Brooklyn Public Library Guild Local 1482 joined New York Public Library Guild Local 1930 in the drive, and the union is now pushing for similar raises in the other systems.

“We made this a moral crusade — and we won,” said Local 1930 President Ray Markey, who has received inquiries from around the country about the one-year agreement. “Our contract campaign put the Library’s recruitment and retention crisis under a public spotlight,” Mr. Markey said.

“We made so much noise that it became an accepted fact among the general public and the city’s elite that the Library needed to raise salaries in order to address the exodus of librarians,” said Lynn Taylor, Local 1930’s vice president for librarians.

Only about 450 out of 600 Librarian positions are filled at the New York Public Library, where Librarians start out at about $31,000. Experienced NYPL Librarians are paid about $10,000 less than their counterparts at the Board of Education and in the suburbs, according to Local 1930’s research.

In remarkable coincidence that captured the essence of the local’s campaign, the Staten Island Advance ran a banner headline — “Staff shortage cripples libraries” — on its front page the day of the vote. The article reported that NYPL shut down four branches that week because of a shortage of librarians and support staff. NYPL, which is supported by city and private funds, runs the public libraries in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.

The agreement between the New York Public Library and Local 1930 provides a one-time 8 percent across-the-board increase retroactive to March 29. Union officials hope members will see the raises in their paychecks by June.

In exchange, the local gave up a daily 20-minute break, a night differential and two bonus days.

Under the agreement, Librarians in the branches will receive automatic promotions after nine months, provided they get favorable reviews. In the past, those promotions weren’t automatic, and workers had to wait at least until their second anniversary of employment to be eligible. As a trade-off for the promotions, Local 1930 agreed to give management the flexibility to reassign Senior Librarians after they’re on the payroll nine months.

Now the local’s goal is to lock-in the agreement to make the raises permanent, Mr. Markey said.

“The Local 1930 agreement is the result of a model contract campaign,” said DC 37 Administrator Lee Saunders. “They won by getting their members involved, drawing media attention to their plight, educating the public and politicians and using the institutional power and resources of the union.”