by Steven Higgs

Work conditions inside the Monroe County Public Library have sunk to the point that workers are organizing a union. Organizers say a fundamental clash of values lies at the heart of the dispute.

It was about the time that Monroe County Public Library (MCPL) officials started calling patrons "customers" that the leaders of the fledgling unionization movement there started to worry. The simple notion causes Stephanie Holman to intellectually rebel.

“This is a nonprofit library, a public library, which has a unique purpose, with a unique philosophy of service,” the children’s librarian at the Ellettsville branch said. “A lot of us who went to library school here at IU are strongly grounded in a nonprofit, service-oriented model.”

And the rapid imposition the past few years of a business-model approach to library management, she said, has caused “people who are couched in that philosophy ... to strain.”

MCPL technology trainer Phil Eskew is one of many examples.

"There's a customer service committee at the library," he said. "... They're not customers, they're patrons."

In a recent interview at Borders, some of the union movement leaders insisted that their concerns have evolved from philosophical and workplace conflicts with the past two library directors and that the organizing effort is not "a personal vendetta" against MCPL Director Cindy Gray. They use her name sparingly.

"We all realized, 'Hmm, it could be somebody besides this current director," Holman said. "It could be the next director. It could be the board of trustees."

As they detailed their repeated attempts to have their grievances addressed, Holman, Eskew and Children's Services Assistant Kathy Sparks-Dyer emphasized that workers have gone through channels, to no avail, perhaps to the detriment of their cause.

"It's so frustrating," Sparks-Dyer said. "And it's not going to get any better."

Sparks-Dyer said some MCPL employees briefly explored unionizing during the tenure of former library Director Dave Ivey, who ushered in the business-model management approach. Ivey succeeded Dave Bucove in May 2001 and served until Gray's appointment two-and-a-half years ago.

"It didn't seem like a good fit," Sparks-Dyer said of that early foray into union organizing. "It didn't get very far at all."

But the seeds of discontent sewn in Ivey's day have blossomed under Gray. Workers today feel that, in addition to the philosophical changes, workplace issues have left them no choice but to unionize.

"The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back was inconsistency," Eskew said. "... There seems to be no consistency in the way policy is being implemented."

The organizers cite as examples hiring, firing, promotion and the implementation of procedural changes.

And there has been significant staff turnover, even among professional staff, which Holman said "is the highest it's ever been."

They argue that in a nonprofit, service-oriented, taxpayer-funded institution, consistency and transparency are requisite.

It's not that the administration didn't try to answer staff questions, Holman said. "But it never really helped. It was still unclear, inconsistent and still smacked of favoritism, even though you did get communication back."

A lot of the time, Eskew added, "Administration would just say, 'I'm the director.'"

Holman said the administration frequently refers to a page in the MCPL's personnel manual called "Management Rights" that essentially says, "the director can do anything."

As a testament to how much the workplace has changed at the library, she added, "I wasn't even aware of that page."

After meeting with a representative from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), concerned employees earlier this year formed an organizing committee and conducted a "soft assessment" of the library's 180 employees.

Based upon informal conversations with employees, the 14-member organizing committee forged ahead and presented the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees with a proposal to unionize 102 library employees.

"I want to say that the organizing committee is quite large, and that in itself says a lot," Holman said. "And there are representatives of every department."

Under Indiana law, the seven library trustees have the authority to set the terms and conditions of union recognition, Eskew said. They could decide that a simple majority of eligible employees signing pro-union cards is enough. Or they could set the exact terms of a union vote, such as the percent of eligible employees who must vote and the percent of those who must say, "Yes."

The trustees are considering the proposal and meeting individually with organizing committee members.

Board members to date have publicly refused to comment or have indicated they were unaware of any problems at the library.

Eskew said there has been a common perception among employees that they were not permitted to speak to the board.

While they aren't sharing their head counts, Eskew, Holman and Sparks-Dyer said they would not have moved forward if they weren't confident of the outcome.

"I feel really good about it," Eskew said. "I feel very optimistic about where we're going."

Steven Higgs can be reached at editor@BloomingtonAlternative.com.