PAGE 6 | August 21, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Multnomah County
library locations are
closed to browsing,
but patrons can
place materials on
hold and schedule
appointments to
pick them up when
they arrive. Library
management is
planning layoffs
Sept. 30, while re-
jecting suggestions
by members of AF-
SCME Local 88 to
keep workers em-
ployed, like expand-
ing the hours avail-
able for patrons to
pick up hold materi-
als.
Budget’s fine, but library layoffs loom
By Don McIntosh
Multnomah County Library is
about to lay off a sixth of its
workforce by order of the library
director, even though its budget
is under no threat.
All 19 library locations have
been closed to the public system-
wide since March 14 because of
COVID-19. The library contin-
ues to pay employee salaries,
whether their work can be per-
formed or not. In June, the li-
brary resumed lending by return-
ing staff to the job in limited
numbers and allowing patrons to
schedule in-person pickups of
materials they reserve online.
But on July 7, the library an-
nounced layoffs would take
place anyway. A July 20 email
from library human resources
department said 128 positions
would be eliminated, including
nine managers and 119 workers
represented by AFSCME Local
88. Laid off employees would
continue to get health insurance
through the end of the year.
“The library cannot pay a sig-
nificant portion of its workforce
indefinitely for work they are not
able to do during the pandemic,”
library director Vailey Oehlke
wrote in a July 28 statement.
“The library must honor its obli-
gation to the public that funds
the library by acting as a
thoughtful and transparent stew-
ard of public resources.”
Since then, the number slated
for layoff has shrunk to as few as
79, Oehlke told Oregon Public
Broadcasting Aug. 13. To reduce
the number of involuntary lay-
offs, administrators have been
asking for volunteers to retire or
agree to be laid off. Initially, lay-
offs were to take place Aug. 30,
but at Local 88’s urging, have
been moved back to Sept. 30.
But library employees like
Nicole Newsom question the
need for any layoffs in a time of
extraordinary community need,
when there’s no urgent budget-
ary necessity.
“The layoffs are unneces-
sary,” says Newsom, a union
steward and 25-year library em-
ployee. “They’re not due to
budget issues.”
Multnomah County Library is
funded with a dedicated property
tax. Unlike income tax revenue,
which is significantly impacted
by the pandemic recession, prop-
erty tax revenues are expected to
be relatively unaffected.
Union members aren’t asking
the library to pay employees
who aren’t working, but they’re
asking the library to be creative
in finding work they can do to
serve the community.
“Even though the buildings
aren’t open to the public the way
they used to be, the needs and
demands of the public haven’t
gone away, and in fact there’s
probably greater need,” said Lo-
cal 88 representative Eben Pull-
man.“We’re hoping we can
make progress, and encourage li-
brary management not to make
these cuts.”
At one point, the union pro-
posed taking part in the Oregon
Employment Department’s
Workshare program, which pays
a partial unemployment benefit
for employees who have their
hours reduced but library man-
agement rejected the suggestion.
In early August, after Local
88 proposed a task force to eval-
uate member suggestions for
ways to avert layoffs, more than
200 library workers contributed
ideas. The task force presented
the most promising ideas to the
library’s executive team Aug. 13.
One idea would be to extend
hours and shifts. With fewer
staff in locations because of so-
cial distancing rules, it’s taking
the library longer than usual to
fulfill hold requests; that, and oc-
casional lines for hold pickups,
could be eliminated if the library
would extend hours at branches
the with highest circulation, and
schedule two shifts. Other ideas
include assigning library staff to
work with teachers to help fam-
ilies with technology when the
school year begins; deploying li-
brary workers to help unem-
ployed workers with resumes
and job searches; allowing
mask-wearing patrons back in to
browse in limited numbers;
holding socially distant chil-
dren’s story time outdoors; and
providing printing and other
services to the public.
But Newsom, who served on
the task force, said on Aug. 18
In our glorious fight for civil
rights, we must guard
against being fooled by
false slogans, such as
‘right-to-work.’ It provides
no ‘rights’ and no ‘work.’ Its
purpose is to destroy labor
unions and the freedom of
collective bargaining ...
We demand this fraud be
stopped. The labor move-
ment was the principal
force that transformed
misery and despair into
hope and progress.
M ARTIN L UTHER K ING , J R .
it’s been “radio silence” from
management since the sugges-
tions were delivered.
Rank-and-file members have
been organizing to stop the lay-
offs, and are calling on the public
to write to library management
and the County Commission. To
get the message out, they created
a web site, savelibrarystaff.org
“Our members are ready and
willing to do the work, and
there’s work they could be do-
ing,” Pullman said.
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