County Library Aides Rally to Demand Pay Raises

Aides and pages from the Los Angeles County library system, along with their supporters, staged lunchtime demonstrations outside four area libraries Monday to demand better pay.

Demonstrators picketed and leafleted outside libraries in El Monte, West Hollywood, Carson and Valencia, representing a geographic cross-section of the county’s 87-library system.

The peaceful demonstrations, which took place during the library employees’ lunch break, was not intended to shut down the facilities, officials said, but to raise awareness on the issue.

On average, library pages make $6.51 an hour and aides make $7.68, with no benefits for the part-time positions, according to Mark Tarnawsky, communications director for the Service Employees International Union, which represents county employees. They are seeking $8.32 an hour with health insurance coverage and $9.46 an hour without such insurance, in line with the proposed “living wage” that the county is considering for companies that contract with the county.

“There are over 800 library aides and pages in Los Angeles County who are making less than the living wage, most of whom are part-time,” Tarnawsky said.

The Board of Supervisors last month instructed its staff to draft a law requiring a so-called living wage for those companies that contract with the county. The union would like to see the board bring wages for the county’s full-time and part-time employees into compliance with a living wage mandate as well.

John Hill, chief of staff for Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a supporter of the living-wage ordinance, said Burke would be open to looking at establishing a living wage for county employees, but has no position yet on the issue.