Forwarded on behalf of Tom Brown, president of the Library workers' union:
It is a fact that Library Board members attended the September and October
general membership meetings of AFSCME Local 99. They, along with Richard
Rose, attempted to drum up our support for the referendum.Their hope was
that
we would pass a resolution in favor of the referendum. Because of time
restraints the discussion was tabled until the October meeting. At the
October meeting a motion was offered to pass a resolution in favor of the
referendum. After a lengthy discussion the motion was put to a vote of the
membership. The motion failed and no further action was taken. The reasons
for
it's failure were many and varied. The general concensus was that members
who
support the referendum should be encouraged to do so on a personal level.
Without going into a lot of detail these are some of the reasons a
resolution was not passed by Local 99--
-The library project is too expensive and is competing against the School
Board referendum
-Uncertainities about staffing levels during the construction period and
future staffing levels in the new library.
-Concerns about the "actual" plans for the branch libraries
-Closing the central library for approximately two years and the
unavailability of a good portion of our collection
-Keeping the current site open and building on the Nicollet Hotel site is
preferred
-Considering the fact that the Library Board and Local 99 went through a
protracted and contentious negotiations and relations between us have been
strained(but improving), Local 99 was not inclined to give our support to
the
referendum--- but support on a personal level was encouraged
I hope this clarifies our position.
Thomas Brown
President Local 99
Forwarded by David Brauer, List manager, Mpls-issues
