BURNABY, B.C. The Fraser Valley Regional Library Board has rejected a CUPE proposal that would ensure Sunday openings with the required workers.
We offered a viable solution that would allow libraries to stay open on Sundays, but the employer walked away from the table, CUPE Local 1698 president Marina Kristjanson said.
The two sides were in mediation trying to find a way out of the bargaining impasse created when the employer tabled about 14 concessions in its final offer last month.
The regions more than 300 library workers rejected the employers final offer only to face veiled threats that they could be locked out of their jobs.
We agreed that library workers could be assigned to Sunday duties as well as using those who volunteer to forfeit their day of rest, Kristjanson said. But the employer simply walked away.
We have consistently asked the employer to let us serve the public, Kristjanson said. But the employer seems to want total control of our liveseven on Sunday.
The local showed a willingness to give the employer more flexibility to open on Sundays, but it proposed that workers with religious or family reasons for not wanting to work Sunday should not be required to work. The employer rejected it.
The Fraser Valley Regional Library is the largest library system in British Columbia. It serves communities from Delta to Boston Bar (excluding Surrey) and Port Coquitlam to Agassiz.
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Contact:
Marina Kristjanson, CUPE Local 1698, 604-534-8176.