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Public Employee Press
Art Handlers
Local 1930s newest members win contract
A group of Art Handlers the newest members of
New York Public Library Guild Local 1930 voted unanimously May 22 to approve
their first contract. The pact provides for an immediate 50 cent hourly
pay increase and union benefits. The agreement raises the hourly pay
from $14 to $14.50 for the five full-time Art Handlers and three part-time Art
Handlers covered by the pact on the ratification date. The contract will
expire upon the expiration date of the next collective bargaining accord between
New York Public Library and the union. Under the groups first contract,
full-timer Art Handlers will get the same benefits as other full-time library
workers in Local 1930, including health insurance, welfare benefits (optical and
podiatry care, as well as education and prescription drug coverage), a pension
and paid vacations. Joined in 2005
The part-time workers are eligible for welfare and pension benefits, but they
will not be entitled to paid holidays during the contract. The Art Handlers
joined DC 37 in March 2005. The union then began pressing NYPL for an agreement
to cover the new members. The unions negotiating team included
Local 1930 President Lynn Taylor, Director of Research and Negotiations Dennis
Sullivan, Assistant Director Nola R. Brooker and now-retired Assistant Director
Michelle Green of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept., Rep Lisa Riccio of
the Professional Division, and Art Handlers Tom Zimmerman and Ana Mari de Quesada.
It felt great to be paid Memorial Day, said Zimmerman, who less
than two weeks after the contract ratification enjoyed a paid holiday for the
first time during his five years as a full-time Art Handler at NYPL.
Union protection in an ugly era It was a long battle for
this group of workers to win the right to union representation and to get a contract,
which isnt perfect but is something we plan to build upon in the future,
Taylor said. In an era when workers continue to take it on the
chin, we are happy to have helped a group of people who had been treated like
casual laborers become union members with benefits and the protection of a contact.
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