IMPACT is to demand a reversal of plans to amalgamate library services in 12 counties at a meeting of the Lansdowne Road Agreement Oversight Group, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday week. This follows an 87% aggregate vote in favour of industrial action by library staff in the affected councils.
The union’s Local Government Divisional Executive Committee has said it will announce details of industrial action plans in the 13 affected local authorities if the Local Government Management Association - the national voice of local authority management – fails to give a satisfactory assurances that local councils will keep control of their library services at the Oversight Group meeting next week.
IMPACT says proposals to amalgamate library services threaten local provision as library budgets come under increasing pressure. The local authorities affected are Carlow, Cavan, Cork City, Cork County, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo and Westmeath.
Local needs
IMPACT says the proposals, drawn up by a Dublin-based planning group, took little account of local needs and failed to include a cost-benefit analysis. The union says neither staff nor local elected representatives have been properly consulted on the initiative, which has no statutory basis and could herald the end of local decision-making on library services.
There are also concerns over the impact of the proposals on staffing and career structures, and the possible relocation of staff across county boundaries.
IMPACT national secretary Peter Nolan said the ballot result reflected the depth of feeling among library staff about the amalgamation threat. “Industrial action is the avenue of last resort. Local libraries are vital social hubs in rural and urban communities that have already lost shops, garda stations, post offices and other local amenities.
“We can’t allow our thriving library system to be to be gutted on foot of a remote number-crunching exercise, which doesn’t reflect local needs or the realities of community life.”
Separately, staff in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown’s library service have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action in response to a lack of recruitment and a management proposal to open on Sundays on a staff-less basis. Read more here.
