Longer Library Hours Prove Fiction, Not Fact

The Los Angeles City Council approved longer hours for public libraries a year ago, but members of the librarians union have refused to approve a deal that would allow members to work Sundays.

“We are working hard to resolve this issue, and hope to come to resolution quickly,” said City Librarian Susan Kent.

Librarians Guild President Rory Stone said the union too hopes to break the impasse soon, but added that some members distrust the administration.

“People think we’re money-grubbing and that we don’t want to serve the public, and it’s just not true,” he said. “It’s very upsetting.”

After nine months of negotiations, the city and the union’s leaders agreed to a deal that would have given full-time librarians eight hours of pay for five hours of work on Sundays. But last week, 109 members of Librarians Guild Local 2626 voted for the deal, and 104 voted against. Since the union requires that two-thirds of its members approve such an agreement, the deal was rejected.

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The library administration has declared the talks at an impasse and will bring the issue before the city Employee Relations Board, which is expected to call in a mediator.

City Councilman Mike Feuer called the stalemate “intolerable” and has asked both sides to report to the Arts, Health and Humanities Committee today.

With the exception of the downtown Central Library, Sunday hours have not been offered for at least 40 years, library officials said. The separate Los Angeles County library system has five libraries open on Sundays.

But last year, reversing years of cutbacks in the 68-library system, the City Council and Mayor Richard Riordan provided extra funding to expand library hours to include Sundays, as well as some mornings and evenings.

Eight regional libraries were to expand hours from 46 to 60, and seven community branches from 40 to 52.

A second expansion was approved by the council earlier this week, adding 15 community branch libraries to the list of those open 52 hours at a cost of about $1.6 million.

But nothing has changed so far, and library officials say it may be some time before the dispute is resolved.

Kent , the city librarian, said she was disappointed that members rejected the recommendation of the union leaders. “We had some employees who don’t want to work Sunday,” she said.

Stone, of the guild, said librarians feared that the administration wouldn’t hold to a promise that only one Sunday per month per employee would be required.

“All we want is a little understanding from management to give us enough staff,” he said, “so that I don’t have to say to people in our union, ‘You will be working every other Sunday and three nights a week.’ ”

Los Angeles city librarians start at a salary of about $32,000 and can earn nearly $46,000 with experience, Stone said.

The rejection is rooted less in pay issues than in frustration over long hours, and too few people to fill in when others are sick or on jury duty, Stone said.

Virginia Yermo, a librarian at the West Valley branch, said most librarians want the expanded hours. But she dreads the days when “there’s a line almost constantly. Then, people don’t like it, they leave early, it’s frustrating for patrons and frustrating for librarians,” she said.

Sunday, already the busiest day at the downtown library, would probably be such a day, she says. Because the library hasn’t planned for enough staffing, “it would be a very stressful Sunday,” she said.

Stone said the administration’s assurances that “a concerted effort” would be made to maintain schedules was greeted with skepticism by library staff. “We have seen their concerted efforts,” he said.

Also at issue is extra compensation on Sundays for part-time librarians and concerns that evening hours would interfere with librarians’ day-care schedules, he said.

Kent said the library administration has no intention of making changes that would “put an undue burden on the staff.”

“My job is to guarantee that the library stays open and to do that with the staff we have and the agreements we have in place,” she said. “We would never had agreed to anything we couldn’t . . . have lived up to.”

The library has hired 34 people to help cover the new hours. Because of the dispute, they are filling in on existing shifts. Meanwhile, 18 librarians have left, said Alonzo Clark, library human resources director. However, the library has a list of 100 substitutes, said spokesman Peter Persic.

“The distrust,” Kent said, “was obviously with the [guild] leadership.”