Representatives of the Great Neck Library Staff Association, who are currently deadlocked in negotiations with administrators over a new contract, said this week they are discouraged by the “purposefully contentious” tenor of talks that have left library staff working without a new deal for much of the past year.
Great Neck Library Staff Association President Chris Johnson and past President Jonathan Aubrey criticized the library administrators, board of trustees and their attorneys from Farrell Fritz P.C. during an exclusive interview with Blank Slate Media, for failing to foster an amicable environment to reach a new deal.
“There’s a lack of mutual respect,” Johnson said. “We feel as if we’ve been sort of demonized, turned into the enemy, when our goal is basically just to do our jobs. We all decided to work in a library because we had this desire to help people.”
But for the nearly 100 staff members who work at the Great Neck Library’s four branches, Johnson said that desire has become much more difficult to attain over the past year.
The Great Neck Library Staff Association representatives said a reduction in staff hours, elimination of open positions, a hiring freeze and a diminished ability to use “fill-in staff members” have made operating the daily functions of the library much more difficult.
For many of the staff members, the failing contract negotiations and low morale at the library have become a serious problem, Aubrey said.
“I just care about this library,” he said. “I’ve been going to this library since I was a little kid, so it’s something that means a lot to me. I really don’t like seeing it going down hill the way it has, get caught up in all this political wrangling, when it really should be just a pretty simple mission.”
Contract negotiations between the staff association and library administrators began in the last week of November, despite what Aubrey said was the union’s desire to begin talks last July.
“It was contentious from the beginning for any number of reasons,” Aubrey said. “It’s really hard to actually say exactly why.”
During the “10 to 12 talks” that have occurred between the two sides, Johnson said the staff association has agreed to accept “next to no” cost-of-living pay increase as part of the new deal, along with contributing more to their health and dental insurance plans.
“Those costs are going up, so they want to get more of a percentage of that from us,” Aubrey said. “We understood that, so we did make concessions on medical and dental benefits.”
“We basically were able to settle for next to no cost of living increases,” he added. “It was something, but it was negligible, certainly nothing close to what we’ve had in the past, which wasn’t a lot either.”
Great Neck Library Director Jane Marino declined comment on this story, citing the ongoing nature of the contract negotiations.
Outside of their concessions during the talks, Johnson and Aubrey also declined to further elaborate on the nature of the contract negotiations.
“We’ve approached it the way we’ve always approached it,” Johnson said of the negotiations.
But, the Great Neck Library Staff Association representatives both said the library’s board of trustees and its attorneys have not fostered a positive atmosphere for negotiations to take place.
“In this case, it was like this is what I need from you. This is what I want from you. I’m not going to take any less,” Aubrey said. “It’s part of the atmosphere that’s been created. I really think you can lay the responsibility for that at the feet of the board.”
Johnson said trustees that have not allowed Marino to fully negotiate in good faith.
“It would be nice if the board would allow the library director to do her job and to manage the library and serve as a team leader,” Johnson said.
Between 2003 and 2010, Johnson said the library staff has lost an equivalent of 10 full-time employees to retirement, which encompasses an equivalent of 350 staff hours across the library’s four branches.
Those employees have not been replaced, causing the remaining staff members to take on additional duties without further time considerations or compensation, Johnson said
During the same time period of 2003 through 2010, the Great Neck Library has seen an increase of 8,138 cardholders to now include 43,069 patrons across the system, Johnson said.
All residents of Great Neck’s nine villages are eligible to use the Great Neck Library facilities, along with New Hyde Park residents, who are serviced by the Great Neck Public Schools System.
“Negotiations were always much more amicable,” Aubrey said of his previous experience in contract talks. “It wasn’t like they’d give us what we wanted, we’d give them what they wanted, but it wasn’t contentious like these are – purposefully contentious.”
Over the past week, library staff members began wearing buttons, which read “Save Our Staff” in a show of solidarity during the contract negotiations.
Johnson said the buttons have received a reaction from library patrons.
“The patrons are concerned,” Johnson said. “They want to know what is going on.”
“Very few people if any,” Aubrey added, “understand that there is a contract negotiation going on at all.”
For library staff members, Johnson said the hope is to attain “a fair contract that allows us to do our jobs properly, allows us to provide the services we want to provide.”
Although contract negotiations have stalled, Johnson said there is still a hope that a deal can be reached soon.
“All of a sudden we feel like we’re asking for the moon when basically we’re just asking to cover our bills,” Johnson said.
But, Aubrey said that library administrators must be more willing to compromise with the staff association.
“They want to do whatever they want to do at the expense of the staff, which means at the expense of patrons,” Aubrey said. “That’s a direct translation.”
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