BURNABY, BC, May 31 /CNW/ - CUPE BC president Barry O'Neill says a
decision late yesterday to close Canada's only in-house public library bindery
is a disgrace to the Vancouver Public Library board members who voted to close
it down.
"This shameful decision shows that the board is totally out of touch with
the public good and community values," said O'Neill. "Why are we shutting down
a service that we should be proud of providing? This is just plain ideology at
work here."
"I also find it unconscionable that a senior manager with the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation - itself a much-beloved public service that's facing
increasing privatization - would cast the swing vote that, in effect, sends
the bindery into oblivion."
O'Neill was referring to the fact that VPL board chair Joan Andersen, who
works as the CBC's regional director for English Radio, cast the vote that
narrowly defeated a motion that would have kept the bindery, located at the
VPL's Central branch, running in-house.
"The board was fully aware that the bindery was cost-effective, and had
proven to be so," O'Neill continued. "But I gather that the 'no' crowd felt it
was more than their time was worth to revisit this decision in the future.
Well, isn't that a board member's duty?"
The 7-6 vote followed two and a half hours of presentations dominated by
passionate appeals from members of the general public, library patrons, BC
Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair and CUPE 391 activists not to
close the bindery. After the vote, cries of "shame" greeted board members from
the more than 150 people who had crammed into the seventh-floor support staff
lounge at the VPL's Central branch to support the bindery.
An amendment to the motion ensures that no lay-offs will result from the
bindery's closure and calls for library management to work with CUPE 391 to
relocate the 5.8 affected positions within the VPL system "at comparable
wages".
Meanwhile, CUPE 391 says the fight to save the bindery does not end with
the vote.
The Local is encouraging library patrons and other concerned members of
the public to write or e-mail the library board. Letters can be sent to
Vancouver Public Library board, 350 West Georgia, Vancouver B.C., V6B 6B1.
E-mails can go to board@vpl.ca.
For further information: Barry O'Neill, CUPE BC president: (604)
340-6768; Dan Gawthrop, CUPE Communications: (604) 999-6132, www.cupe.bc.ca
