CLEVELAND — More than 400 Cuyahoga County Public Library employees are prepared to strike next month if an agreement cannot be reached on a new contract.
Members of the Service Employees International Union District 1199 voted "overwhelmingly" this past weekend to authorize a walkout beginning July 18, per a release given to 3News. According to Cleveland.com, librarians and clerks would be among those affected.
SEIU 1199 claims that while CCPL profits "have grown significantly" over the past 15 years, "library employees' wages have fallen behind. Library employees see no growth in their wages based on their experience or seniority, effectively being hired in at the highest wage they will ever see in their career at CCPL."
"CCPL can afford everything we proposed. The wage increases the Union proposed are like those agreed to at other northeast Ohio libraries represented by SEIU 1199 over the last two years," Michael Wood, administrative organizer with SEIU 1199, said in a statement. "CEO Tracy Strobel earns a salary greater than the Governor, but is willing to sit back and watch communities all across our county lose the important and essential services taxpayers pay for and libraries provide."
There are 27 Cuyahoga County Public Libraries operating seven days a week, except for holidays. The union says its team has met with library officials almost 20 times since January and has reached agreements "on many issues," but questions surrounding salaries and staffing remain at an impasse.
"We don't want to strike, but the library is leaving us with no choice," Heather Timko, a branch services librarian supervisor at CCPL, wrote Monday. "What we've proposed won't come close to making up for what many of us have given up over the years. We want to serve members of our communities. We love and appreciate the customers we get to see every day. But when we are left with no other reasonable choice, what else can we do?"
Last month, Strobel told Cleveland.com the library was "offering the best increases we've ever offered in this process" but that SEIU 1199 "has been clear that they want significantly more than were offering." Library operations will continue as normal for the time being while negotiations continue.