Public Demands

We Deserve a Job Worth Keeping

PPLWU is an organic, dedicated community of concerned library workers who want to see PPLD succeed as a district. As such, we demand first and foremost that our union be recognized by leadership. We have many of the same values and commitments as PPLD and believe that our union can lead our libraries to a stronger future that will meet the needs of our growing communities.

We deserve a safe working environment.

PPLD workers require better safety and security at work. With too few security staff and faulty equipment, library workers are often operating in unsafe circumstances. Dealing with the public at large can be hazardous, and unsafe working conditions need to improve.

Workers are unsafe and insecure due to a lack of effective healthcare. Part time workers receive insufficient healthcare, and many benefits for all staff need to be reviewed and improved.

Harassment is not handled to the standards demanded by workers. Staff handles harassment from both patrons and other staff, and the processes in place to deal with this maltreatment does not prioritize safety or security.

We deserve a job that enables its workers to thrive.

PPLD has faced consistent staffing issues, leading to library closures on some days and early closures when staff are unable to work their shifts. Library workers have taken on excess work duties during this drawn-out period of short staffing and it is unsustainable. We deserve support. Workers are experiencing high burnout, leading to even less workers for the district.

Pay, healthcare, and other benefits need to be reviewed and improved to maintain an effective, healthy, and happy workforce. We work daily to provide services that support thousands of people, yet are not supported well enough to continue this work. PPLD workers deserve the care that we show to our patrons and communities every day.

Many workers are stretched thin by performing tasks that are above their pay grade. There are not enough full-time positions for employees with the skills and qualifications to promote, nor are there enough opportunities for upward mobility.

PPLWU demands appropriate pay for employees that bring extra value to the district. Extra skills, languages, and cultural competencies used on the job deserve compensation. Being able to connect with as many people in our community as possible is a benefit to the district as a whole.

We deserve to be included in workplace decisions.

In recent years the library has made positive steps towards transparency and providing information to workers, but this effort has fallen short. Lack of transparency and clarity from leadership leads to unstable working conditions and an uncertain future for the library.

Workers deserve input on how their job is organized and overseen. We demand that those in leadership positions be subject to review by their subordinates .This will ensure the workplace is running efficiently and equitably.

Hiring procedures, corrective action, and promotions processes need more staff input and transparency. Expectations are not clearly communicated. Evaluations and feedback are inconsistent. Communication needs to be improved.

This list of demands is neither exhaustive nor final. This is only the beginning. We want to work with each other towards a safer, more sustainable library district to the benefit of the whole community. We are growing and evolving constantly. If you want your voice to be heard, contact PPLWU and get involved.

June 2024 Update

We care about our workplace, and our demands fall in line with PPLD’s values and Strategic Plan areas of focus for 2023-2025. We value our jobs, our workplace, and are appreciative of the efforts that our district is making to improve conditions.

The District places focus on Access, Accountability, Communications, Community Connections, Physical and Virtual Spaces, and Staff. Many recent decisions have been antithetical to these areas of focus.

Access: PPLD is an access point for everyone to engage with resources, services, and spaces as they choose.

Accountability: PPLD is accountable to all stakeholders through fiscal responsibility, continuous evaluation, and by sharing findings with the public.

Communications: PPLD invests in and elevates community awareness of its resources, services, and spaces.

Community Connections: PPLD builds community through relationships and partnerships to connect people to relevant resources, services, and spaces.

Physical and Virtual Spaces: PPLD provides equitable access to physical and virtual spaces in safe and inclusive environments.

Safety is a concern. Training and education will help with these problems.

Staff: PPLD values, trust, and invests in staff.

We need more trust and investment in training and decision making. More training and privileges are required to fulfill this goal.

Staff Sustainability

Telecommuting

We need a tiered telecommuting policy. Lowest grade staff should be allowed to telecommute from home for meetings, such as for Chief Librarian Chats, circulation meetings, and all meetings that are scheduled for a worker’s day off.

The lack of telecommuting unnecessarily strains workers and costs the district money in mileage reimbursement. For the well-being of staff and to save on costs, we need telecommuting to be available in some form to all workers.

This coincides with PPLD’s Areas of focuses in Accountability (due to cheaper costs) Communications, Staff, Physical and Virtual Spaces, and Access.

Transparency

A Return to form for Chief Librarian Chats:

For transparency and to inform and involve workers, we need CEO chats to return to our previous form.

Chief Librarian Chats were an amazing way for frontline staff to get a direct link to the leadership team, and it was a great District time investment for workers to stay informed and get answers. We demand that they return to their previous form, with workers allowed to telecommute to these sessions and ask questions and receive answers firsthand. We want these to exclude managers, as they have in the past, ensuring that workers have the chance to ask questions they do not wish to ask to their direct manager.

This coincides with PPLD’s Areas of focus in Communications, Staff, Accountability, and Access.

Signage

We need guidelines for signage, and not complete control by our communications department. Trust in workers to do the jobs they are hired to do. A simple guideline or policy for staff to make signage as needed will prevent delays in necessary communications to patrons that can be needed on short notice.

The delays in signage and lack of trust in staff to do this work is detrimental to overall communication to patrons about updates, events, and changes in branches.

This coincides with PPLD’s Areas of focus in Communications, Staff, and Community Connections.

Safety

All-Staff Self Defense

Our workplace graciously offered an optional, free self-defense course during the last PPLDCon. The teacher was amazing, the class was low stress, and it focused on basic hold breaks, awareness, and body positioning.

We would like more non-cardio self-defense courses to be offered to help build skills and confidence among all staff.

This coincides with PPLD’s Areas of focus in Staff and Accountability.

Security Self-Defense

Security workers need more physical training and education to help improve safety concerns and assist security as a department.

It would be helpful for our security workers to learn restraints, ground takedowns in the case of a patron having a weapon, and group takedown tactics that help security staff protect their partners in dangerous situations.
Security staff should be educated in the laws regarding citizen’s arrests and laws involving assault to learn about the legality of defending oneself.

This coincides with PPLD’s Areas of focus in Staff, Accountability, and Physical and Virtual Spaces

September 2023 Update

Part-time workers should be given the opportunity to pick up substitute hours to the maximum amount of 29 hours weekly. This will benefit understaffed branches and prevent closures due to staffing shortages as well as reduce strain on frontline staff and support part-time workers.

The District needs to update the Code of Conduct to include a firm rule against hate speech in clearly defined terms. Using a verbal or written insult or slur about a specific person based on race, gender, sexuality, or other protected class is a more aggravated form of harassment than other forms and should result in a suspension from the library.

The District should prioritize attracting, hiring, and retaining more security staff to ensure safety for both staff and patrons. We recommend offering more full-time positions and higher pay to keep this department sufficiently staffed.

We ask that you give library workers a minimum cost of living adjustment of 3.5%, which is now predicted to be the inflation rate for 2023. Any raise below 3.5% will result in less money in real terms than we made at the end of 2022.

Success!

Wins –

Our Chief Librarian chats have returned due to internal pressure for transparency.
5% raise, which beats the projected inflation rise for the year of 2024.
Security positions have opened with a bonus implemented to entice more workers.
Endorsements of PPLD’s Board of Trustees candidates.
Pride Parade and Juneteenth festival participation to show support for our community.
We continually fight against workplace discrimination and protect workers who are in our Union and those who haven’t joined.