Here's the situation as the union sees it:
- Without a contract: 436 Days
- Waiting to Bargain: 187 Days
- Locked Out: 24 Days
- Salaries and benefits unpaid due to lockout: $519,928.00
- Value of service lost to the public so far: $2,675,524.00
Here's the situation as the faithful patrons see it:
Photo: smallestbones
The photo was taken at a rally to protest the library lockout at the Legislature on Saturday. Appropriately, it was International Women's Day, which is relevant because the one and only issue in this labour dispute is pay equity for the female-dominated library occupations. I can't tell you any more about the rally because I wasn't able to attend, and I haven't been able to find any news coverage of the event. The union website also has nothing on the rally other than the announcement of it.
I have to say (if anyone is listening) that the union is not doing a very good job of communicating with the public (or, more importantly, the media) in such as way as to keep citizens informed and involved. They need to give us something new to take to the politicians, and something to keep us fired up. A lot of people seem to be oblivious to what is going on, so the union has to do more to get their message out. Unless they want this to drag on forever, they've got to raise awareness to such a level that the politicians will get off the fence and start putting pressure on their bargaining committee to negotiate or seek arbitration. If the union can't even get their biggest public protest to date in the newspaper, then there is something wrong with their PR strategy.
