Monday, March 19, 2012

Library Strike

Toronto's library workers went on strike today and demonstrated at City Hall.
Did you know that Toronto Public Library is the busiest library system in the world? 
Three quarters of Toronto's citizens use the library and its facilities.
It's the best deal in town.
This from the library union: "Even though library use has increased 29 per cent since 1998, staff numbers have decreased 17 per cent over the same period."
We don't want to see our numbers decrease any further. (photo Ronald Shum)
 Representatives of other city unions came and walked with us.
The weather was good and the feeling of solidarity was strong.
It was nice to see reporters from all the city's news crews in attendance as Maureen O'Reilly, president of the library union, continued her defence of the library and it's workers.
Here's hoping we're all back to work soon.

9 comments:

  1. I'm hoping too!! Thanks for such great coverage - sending my best wishes and courage to you.
    In solidarity.

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  2. I hope it's a short strike and I hope the city smartens up to how important libraries and librarians are to our society.
    Wonderful pictures!
    Courage to you.

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  3. Thinking of you and your colleagues!
    Toronto needs to spend more on libraries and library staff, not less.

    Were we on strike back in 1980? My memory is fuzzy about yesteryear. I was a very part-time student worker at $2.25/hour so the strike definitely did not have the same impact on me as the full-time staff.

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  4. Thank you Lisa. I agree with you on library spending. I think we get our tax dollar's money's worth out of our libraries. I use our library every day. I don't know what I'd do without it -- and I'm a book buyer.
    Were we on strike back then? -- people were mentioning it, but I don't remember either. It's not in Google.

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  5. I hope the library is back to work soon, it is so disheartening to see that they refuse to negotiate in good faith. My family uses the library heavily, attends programs, takes out books, dvds, magazines, comics, meets their friends goes to child/caregiver programs - endless fun.

    What government program can offer such services for such a small budget with a direct connection with so much of the public? With you in spirit!

    In three years I'm sure I'll be out on the line too when our contract with the Federal Gov't expires and they try to get rid of the rest of the public service.

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  6. Yay Shells !!!!!!!! don`t let them push you around!!!

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  7. Anna, I agree that we get great value from our tax dollars that pay for the library. Value for mere pennies I should say.
    Spirit received -- thank you. I hope our battle today helps your battle in three years!
    Great hearing from you. My parents took me to the library from an early age too -- Saturday morning story-time. I still remember seeing black and white movie footage of Canada's arctic and being astonished that such a place existed.

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