Essex County Library Board Chair Richard Meloche says it's going to take movement on the union side to end the strike that began on June 25, sending 58 library workers to the picket line.
Supporters of striking library workers packed county council chambers Wednesday night to hear CUPE Local 2974's Lori Wightman stress to councillors voters will remember the closed library doors come election time.
"This is going to have an impact on them and they need to understand that," says Wightman. "If they think that eventually this will get resolved and it will be forgotten — it will not be."
Wightman presented a new petition with 1,300 signatures pushing for talks to resume, and for the library board to move off its sick time position — a key sticking point for the union.
CUPE Local 2974 spokesperson Lori Wightman address Essex County Council on October 19, 2016. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)
Meloche says he and every other official in the county want to see libraries open again, but says the union has rejected "generous offers" from the library board.
"I know that they're saying that they've proposed several options, but the options I believe they realized even before they proposed would not be a go," says Meloche. "If they didn't know, they should've known."
The union says it has brought forward ten different offers to the library board in an effort to come to an agreement.
Meloche says there needs to be some ability on the union side to come back with movement on key issues.
"My direction is from county council and my library board," says Meloche, "is to stay the course at this point in time."
Meloche says a key issue is third party insurance. He says the county and the board don't want to be a self-funded insurer for short-term disability, but instead want to bring in a third party insurer to create predictable costs.
Along with Wightman, other striking library workers and hundreds of supporters made their presence known at the meeting by waving their signs and shouting their disapproval of county councillors.
Amherstburg resident and mother of three Cindy Lemieux came to support the striking library workers, and stressed to county council the need for library services.
"The library is not only where we get books; my children attend the summer programs, the March break program, we take part in family nights and we enjoy special exhibits such as this past April's Titanic exhibit," says Lemieux. "We can't get any of that from the internet."
County Warden Tom Bain offered his regrets for the service interruption to residents, but stressed the county's commitment to collective bargaining and its responsibility to prudently use its funds.
Council accepted the petition and forwarded it off to the library board.
There aren't any new negotiations planned between the union and library board at the moment.
