NYPL Union Protests Back-office Move to Central Facility
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 01/10/2008
• Tech services consolidated to one location• It’s in Queens; staff dismayed
• Questions about future of buildings
Tensions between the New York Public Library’s union and management have flared up over the library’s plans to move back-office staff from three locations in Manhattan to a new Library Services Center in Long Island City, which is in Queens (and a location served by the Queens Borough Public Library). “As we move forward with unifying our library under oneNYPL, this facility will allow us to bring together approximately 300 staff members who conduct similar and related work but who are currently physically spread out,” library spokesman Herb Scher told LJ. “The location is available at a cost significantly less than sites available anywhere near central Manhattan yet has superior public transportation and other amenities.”
However, union members, who held a protest December 21, say that the move presents a commuting hardship for members and represents NYPL’s too-secretive effort to maximize the value of its property. The Donnell Library Center has already been sold, and Local 1930 president Carol Thomas says the Mid-Manhattan Library is rumored to be next, though library officials have not been forthcoming. Technical service workers from Mid-Manhattan, the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, and the Library Annex (421 W. 43rd Street), will be moved to Queens, and the Annex will be vacant. Thomas says library officials said the Annex was too expensive to renovate.
