This article provides a good and generally factual outsider’s commentary on issues and leadership change inside our union.
There are a number of facts and perceptive observations contained in this article, and a few things that we think need to be considered a little further.
Maureen O’Reilly, the elected chair of the library bargaining committee and former Recording-Secretary of Local 416, is past President Cochrane’s partner, and has been for a number of years.
There were informal discussions about the possibility of Brian Cochrane becoming a business agent for library workers in the future, after his work at the city and collective bargaining were done. Nothing came of this, and it is no longer under consideration.
The article notes quite correctly that the fight over the library vote “has turned nasty”. The article does not mention, however, that Maureen as a female library worker has been a target and victim of a deliberate campaign of false and malicious allegations intended to smear her reputation as a well respected union leader.
Mark Ferguson did oppose an unconstitutional attempt by a few ambulance members to leave Local 416. Our situation as library workers is completely different. We have a clear and legitimate right to form our own library local under the CUPE Constitution.
The Globe and Mail article cites our concern as library workers that the 416 Executive is already planning “to replace the library workers’ current elected bargaining committee with hand-picked supporters”. Only a strong “yes” vote on Tuesday will ensure that this entirely undemocratic action doesn’t happen.
In the article, Mark Ferguson is self-described as a “common sense” leader who is “less controversial and more collaborative” than his predecessor. He has already made one collaborative deal with Library Management. This deal gave him personal access to TPL’s internal Groupwise email to send out “no” campaign literature, to library members and every library manager, critical of our own library workers’ bargaining committee.
The article says that we wanted to avoid confontation “with librarians supporting staying in Local 416”. This observation is not correct. We wanted no confrontation with the 416 Executive who keep trying to prevent us from talking with library workers about our recommendation (supported 18-0 by the Library Division leadership) to ask members if they want to form a new library workers local. This week, for the second time in a month, Mark Ferguson stomped out in anger from a meeting with library workers, this time because some members asked him to wait his turn in speaking.
Overall, this article is well written, mostly factual, and it touches in places on our current problem as library workers with little or no real voice in Local 416.
Click here to read Globe Article
