Sechelt Public Library workers, who unionized six months ago, have signed their first collective agreement with the library board.
The four-year agreement maintains all benefits and institutes a 2.5 per cent wage increase, to be followed by increases of 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 per cent, respectively, over the following three years.
Union representative Jeff Lawson said library staff from Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 391 ratified the collective agreement July 8, and the library board did so on July 11. The agreement covers 12 employees who provide library programs to children and library services, including computer access, to the whole Coast.
Library board chair Dan Fivehouse said in an email that the board is pleased with the successful conclusion of the collective bargaining.
"This initial four-year contract resolves the staff's concerns about job security and benefits that arose in response to recent economic uncertainties," he wrote, on behalf of the board.
In a statement from the union, bargaining committee and library staff member Lolly Mackenzie characterized the tone at the bargaining table as "co-operative and respectful."
"That [tone] made it possible to come to an agreement that took both parties into consideration," she said.
Fivehouse said with the collective bargaining process concluded, the board and staff can turn their attention to "helping our various local funders develop a formula to provide ongoing and consistent public funding to maintain the core operations of the library, even through adverse economic times."
He said both the Sechelt and Gibsons libraries are funded below the provincial per-capita average, yet outperform libraries serving similar-sized populations across nearly all service categories, such as circulation, usage and library visits.
"That means we areforever trying to provide ever higher levels of servicewith less money than most other libraries in the province, and it is time now to address this situation," he said.
