Board Meeting Tense As Librarians Remain Without A Contract

Thursday, Jan. 18, The Grosse Pointe Library met, reviewing business and briefly taking public comments before retiring to closed door session to continue considering labor negotiations. The union representing Grosse Pointe’s librarians and support staff says the board is dragging its feet purposefully, and saving money at the expense of the 16 librarians and 18 support staffers who've been working without a contract since July 2017.

The Board and the union are scheduled to resume negotiations Thursday, with both sides claiming the other is responsible for delays. According to the union, the board saves thousands a month by refusing to settle because without a contract, staff is prohibited by law from receiving any wage increase and are also required to pay the full increase in medical insurance. A fact-finding report issued by the state largely sided with the union, but the library board says that it didn’t commission the report and isn’t bound by its findings, though the board does say it will adhere to some of the recommendations.

“Both parties received a report with recommendations on November 16th. As the report is non-binding, both parties can choose whether to accept the recommendations,” Grosse Pointe Library Board President Elizabeth Vogel said. “The Library chose to accept the Fact Finder’s recommendation regarding healthcare, which was to allow the employees to maintain their current [insurance] coverage.”

President of the Librarians Unit of Local 1 John Clexton disputes this statement, saying that the union didn’t “demand” maintenance of current coverage, and that the board’s delays on the contract have had real financial consequences to librarians and staffers in the seven months they’ve worked without a contract. “The Library has conceded accepting our insurance proposal after drawing a hard line in the sand,” Clexton said. “In the meantime, each staff member has had to incur an extra insurance expense of $100-200 per month due to the Library refusing to settle the contract.”

Both sides continue to dispute sick leave policy, with the union fighting to maintain an existing, employee-provided sick leave bank of days, and the library insisting on a new short term disability policy. The library says that the sick-leave bank was “antiquated” and unfairly penalized workers with the best attendance. The union says that the library refuses to provide detailed information about the short term plan, and that they do not want to sign for a policy without knowing all the information.

With the sides preparing to resume talks this week, the union has filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) claim against the Library for refusing to bargain from July 25 through Nov. 21, 2017, providing misleading and inaccurate information about the cost and coverage contained in the Library’s proposed insurance plan directly to union members instead of to the union’s representatives and providing inaccurate and incomplete proposals to the union. A hearing for the ULP claim is scheduled for Feb. 7.