We know that many of you are anxious that the CUPE 391 Executive hasn’t announced any kind of organized response to the recent decision to close the Bindery. Your Union Executive has not been silent on the issue. We have in fact been occupied with planning our response to the sad news of the loss of our Bindery.
Since the decision to close the Bindery included provisions for relocating the effected staff members, in order to not jeopardize their chances of landing good comparable positions, we have decided to not plan any major protests at this time. However, we are asking all CUPE 391 members to consider writing a letter to our Library Board to state your disappointment in their decision. Also, please encourage any members of the public to also write letters to the editors of our major newspapers and to the Library Board expressing their concern over this recent decision.
Keep in close contact with your Union for further news on our continued campaign to keep the Bindery open and prevent further job loss. Once we have seen the LMT’s “Implementation Plan” (to be presented to the Board at the June Board meeting), we will reveal further actions for our CUPE 391 members. In the meantime, next week we will be providing all CUPE 391 members with black pins to symbolize our mourning over the loss of the Bindery. The pin should be available early next week and we ask that all members proudly wear these pins while working at VPL.
For details of the Board meeting of May 30th and a breakdown of which Board members voted for the Bindery and which members voted against the Bindery, see the following:
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At 4.30 p.m. on May 30th, 2007, over 150 people met in the Staff Lounge with a twofold purpose: to the save our bindery workers jobs and to save the bindery. We succeeded in the one, but failed in the other: or have we? The Library Board voted 7-6 not to accept option 2 (reduce staffing through attrition and reduce work of Bindery), then voted 7-5 to close the Bindery.