Hello CUPE 391
I am giving a report to the Library Board this evening at 5.30 p.m. re: the 2012 Operating Budget Cuts. Gary Jarvis. our second vice-president, will be addressing the difficulties encountered by part-timers and auxiliary members. The Board trustees meet in The Board Room on level seven on the the fourth Wednesday every month. You are welcome to attend. If you wish to speak about the library cuts, you must contact Chrysalyn Tolentino at 604-331-4003 or chrysalyn.tolentino@vpl.ca. We are supposed to apply before 2 pm for late notice to speak. Given the extremely short notice that the members have been given, perhaps allowances will be made. I will send my report out later tonight. Here is a short excerpt:
It is now February 22nd and the Union Executive has requested a delegation to comment on how Management recommends these cuts to staffing be delivered. Usually the membership is given sufficient notice so that they may comment on the effect of cuts to public service. In this case, the membership been given one day’s notice after I sent several e-mails to the Director of Human Resources and the Chief Librarian regarding the past precedents set in other years. The memo regarding the distribution of the budget cuts appeared on February 21st. This is the gist of memo.
After much discussion with the City, the following items will be put forward for the cost reduction in the City’s 2012 operating budget:
1. Central Information and Reference Service – Staff reduction ($405,000)
2. Services Department PT/replacement Hours Reduction ($40,000)
3. Cataloguing or Cataloguing Support Department – 1 FTE staff reduction (est. $55,000)
You can imagine the members concern. There is a lack of transparency in a process which gives one day’s notice for concerned staff to prepare a delegation – to say nothing of the general public who pay for services.
When the membership hears terms such as “hiring freeze” particularly during these very difficult times, we become fearful. We worry that the work of the library positions not posted will be spread amongst the members without careful consideration of the workload. We have the Workload Survey, the Morale Survey and the Hayes Report to testify to the unfortunate results of the previous lack of planning and evaluation of distribution of work during periods of reorganisation. We become concerned for the future of the library when vacant positions are not posted, then deconstructed without measuring the effects of that action.
Here we have not only a hiring freeze but positions that will not be returning. There are four current scenarios now in the vacancy management pool that the Employer is currently subscribing to and they appear to hopelessly entangled. To calm the members’ worst case scenarios and to try and quantify …. Rest to follow