Public Employee Press

Workers flood NYPL with upgrade requests

More than 75 library workers filed reclassification requests recently as New York Public Library Guild Local 1930 pressed its pay equity campaign.

The local expects to use the media, informational picketing and demonstrations in its drive for fair pay for members in all titles. Meanwhile, it is using a contract clause that lets workers seek upgrades by filing to have their title reclassified.

“We want to use any means at our disposal to get the library to pay its staff a living wage,” Local 1930 President Lynn Taylor said. “Right now we are focusing on technical negotiations and investigations and using the tools provided by our contract. If we don’t get the results we want, we will step up the pressure.”

Local 1930 intensified its fight for higher salaries for clerical workers, Library Technical Assistants and Informational Assistants after Librarians voted earlier this year to accept a proposal from management to end a two-tier pay structure for their title. Several hundred Librarians received raises as a result of the agreement.

In response to the flood of reclassification requests, management set up a series of staff meetings where they issued a new reclassification form that requires more detail about the employees’ duties. Taylor accompanied about 30 members who expressed their outrage over low salaries at the first session, which was held June 2 at Staten Island’s Todt Hill-Westerleigh Branch.

Office Aide 2 Lynn Robinson was among the clerical and other workers at the meeting who confronted Patrick Matthews, a compensation administrator, and Melissa Wendt, borough coordinator, about the need to improve wages.

“I have been working for the system since 1986 and I am making barely $30,000 when I am almost 52,” Robinson told the Public Employee Press. “That’s a disgrace.”

Because of the falling purchasing power of her salary, Robinson said that after her husband died a few years ago, she could no longer afford to maintain her house and was forced to “downsize” into a condominium. “I would probably be living in the projects now if I didn’t have the house to sell,” she said.

Robinson said clerical workers’ wages should reflect their increased skills and responsibilities. Today, clerical workers need computer skills that weren’t necessary years ago, and they are often called upon to help patrons with computer tasks, Robinson said.

On May 11, the Local 1930 Executive Board and DC 37 officials — Director Dennis Sullivan and Assistant Director Michelle Green of the Research and Negotiations Dept. and Rep Lisa Riccio — met with management to discuss upgrades for the clericals, IAs and LTAs.

At the meeting, management claimed that New York Public Library is not experiencing a recruitment and retention problem with the three titles and would only consider salary adjustments within the context of its on-going personnel restructuring. Subsequently, in a response to the executive board’s request, management provided the union with job specifications of all titles to study.