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Librarians get 2 percent annual pay hikes
YOUNGSTOWN
Trustees of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County unanimously ratified a four-year labor contract for the system’s librarians and library assistants, which includes 2 percent annual pay increases and two bonus payments.
“These pay increases allow us to stay within our budget and still recognize the work our employees do so well,” said Heidi Daniel, library director. The trustees ratified the pact Wednesday.
“The library was striving to be fair and equitable. In previous negotiations, our employees gave back wages, took a wage freeze and relinquished steps,” (automatic pay increases based on length of service), she added.
The library system also made vacation and sick-pay concessions in previous negotiations, which have not been restored. Step increases were not reinstated in the current contract.
The average full-time librarian salary is $45,000 a year.
The new contract is retroactive to last Friday, when the union members ratified it.
Bonuses of $950 for full-timers and $570 for part-timers are being paid now.
The second set of bonuses of $500 for full-timers and $360 for part-timers will be paid in the contract’s third year.
Bonuses are one-time payments that aren’t part of the permanent ongoing salary, explained Janet Loew, library communications and public-relations director.
The library system represents 48 librarians and 12 library assistants. Forty-seven of its members are full time and 13 are part time.
The library management wanted a four-year contract because its negotiations use the time-consuming interest-based bargaining – IBB – method and because it didn’t want the next round of negotiations to occur simultaneously with the library’s next levy-renewal campaign three years from now, Loew said.
IBB is more time-consuming than traditional labor negotiations because, in IBB, each side fully explains the rationales behind its proposals, and IBB talks feature more people speaking than traditional bargaining, she added.
The library system remains in negotiations with its 104-member clerical, maintenance and technical bargaining unit, whose contract expires April 30.