Unsafe conditions leads Saskatoon library workers to vote for a strike

Employees of the Saskatoon Public Library have voted 95 per cent in favour of taking strike action if the city does not address safety concerns expressed by its workers.

After months of bargaining, CUPE 2669, the union which represents the workers, says negotiations have broken down over wages and workplace safety

“Saskatoon (has) been experiencing an increase in violence in their workplaces. Despite their efforts to get the employer to deal with that and create safe workplaces for the workers and patrons that use the libraries, there hasn’t been much action,” said Kent Peterson, the president of CUPE Saskatchewan.

“What we’ve been doing through the collective bargaining process is putting through some common sense solutions to dealing with violence in the workplace and the employer has agreed to none of them,” he said.

This led to the two sides reaching an impasse and a 95 per cent vote for a strike mandate.

Peterson said he’s not surprised to see the vote from the workers so one-sided, saying this is an issue they’ve wanted to see fixed for a long time.

Because of the impasse reached, a moderator has been appointed by the Minister of Labour to get both sides back to the bargaining table and talking.

“We’re hopeful the employer will see that library workers are serious about this and they are not willing to settle for less than what they deserve, which is safe workplaces, and hopefully the employer will come and agree to some of our common sense solutions to eliminate violence in the workplace and we won’t have to take job action,” he explained.

Because a mediator has been appointed, a strike is still further out of reach than it seems, but Peterson thinks the vote announced Tuesday by CUPE shows the group is united.

The violence in Saskatoon libraries has gotten so bad that some facilities have had to reduce their hours as a result.