May 1, 2019 – Show Your Library Love, Join the Read In Demo

 

CUPE Local 932 has decided, with the support of management, to participate in the CUPE Read-In taking place tomorrow May 1 between 12 and 2 PM.
May 1st has been chosen as an official day of action against the Doug Ford cuts to public services. Local 932 and HPL have chosen to participate in the Read-In. This form of peaceful protest is designed to encourage members, workers and customers to show their support of public libraries by reading in front of their community branch between the hours of 12 and 2 tomorrow.
Let us show the Ontario government that Ontarians love their public libraries.
We are asking members to participate on their lunch or breaks or before or after their shift and to read in front of their location. We can ask customers to join in as well. What the campaign is trying to achieve is to get a visual representation of the people who visit, use and support public libraries. Sending photos or posting them to our social media pages will assist this.
More details to come.
Email any of the executives or reach out via our social media if pages if you have any questions.
Facebook & Twitter: @cupe932

 

CUPE 932 New Committee Members

Nominations were closed during the Membership Meeting held last Thursday, October 25 at SHW. All nominees have been acclaimed.

Here’s your new committee members.

Executive Committee

  • President – Mandy Bullard
  • VP 1 – Iggy Filice
  • VP2 – Erin Olmsted
  • VP3 – Jennie Hamilton
  • Secretary-Treasurer – Bridie Howell
  • Recording Secretary – Laura Lamb
  • Chief Steward – Marg Mandula

Negotiating Committee

  • Jennie Hamilton
  • Bridie Howell
  • Iggy Filice

Grievance Committee

  • Erin Willson
  • Kari Gruneberg

By-law Committee

  • Paul Davis
  • Diana Haefele
  • Alex Miller

Job Evaluation Committee

  • Jackie Dunn
  • Bridie Howell
  • Erin Olmsted
  • Naso Sipsis (alternate)
  • Jenny McFadden (alternate)

Joint Health & Safety Committee*

  • Sean Crowe
  • Kari Gruneberg
  • Sue Leger
  • Andrew Pretty

*April Windus withdrew her nomination acceptance. Andrew Pretty was nominated and accepted his nomination in writing during the October 25 membership meeting.

3rd Year Trustee

  • Sue Leger

 

 

 

 

 

CUPE 932 Nominations

During the General Membership meeting held last Monday, September 24. Nominations were opened for the various committees of the local. Nominations will remain open until the next General Membership meeting which will be on Wednesday, October 24 Thursday, October 25.

Below are the nominees:

Executive Committee

  • President – Mandy Bullard
  • VP 1 – Iggy Filice
  • VP2 – Erin Olmsted
  • VP3 – Jennie Hamilton
  • Secretary-Treasurer – Bridie Howell
  • Recording Secretary – Laura Lamb
  • Chief Steward – Marg Mandula

Negotiating Committee

  • Jennie Hamilton
  • Bridie Howell
  • Iggy Filice

Grievance Committee

  • Erin Willson
  • Kari Gruneberg

By-law Committee

  • Paul Davis
  • Diana Haefele
  • Alex Miller

Job Evaluation Committee

  • Jackie Dunn
  • Bridie Howell
  • Erin Olmsted
  • Naso Sipsis (pending acceptance)
  • Jenny McFadden (pending acceptance)

Joint Health & Safety Committee

  • Sean Crowe
  • Kari Gruneberg
  • April Windus
  • Sue Leger

 

 

 

Happy Summer, Members

Happy Summer, Everyone.

The Executive Committee of your union, CUPE Local 932, would like to thank all of the members who came by to see us during the Staff Day poster sessions. Thank you for verifying and updating your contact information. It is important that your union keep accurate contacts so that we can always reach out and keep members informed on labour changes and policies. It was great being able to reconnect with friends and meet new members who have not had the chance to make it to a meeting yet.

Another way of keeping our members informed of your union’s activities is through social media. CUPE 932 has Facebook and Twitter accounts – CUPE Local 932 & @cupe932. If you haven’t done it yet, like and follow both accounts.

Aside from posting updates about our local, CUPE, labour actions and public libraries, we’ve also been posting news and articles about Hamilton. We’ve recently posted an article about the challenge that food banks face during the summer. It is during this season that donations go down for them but the need increases because the kids are home.

Your Executive has decided to make a donation of $200 to Neighbour to Neighbourhood banks on behalf of CUPE Local 932. We are also encouraging a food drive at your location. Members of the Executive will come around and pick up any donations of non-perishables or gift cards and deliver it to our Barton Branch for their Little Free Pantry.

Thank you in advance for what is sure to be a successful campaign!

In Solidarity,

Mandy Bullard

Marg Mandula

Jennie Hamilton

Erin Olmsted

Iggy Filice

Bridie Howell

Laura Lamb

2018 Library Workers Conference

The 2018 Library Workers Conference will be held on March 20 and 21 at Richmond Hill, ON. This year’s theme is Sex, Drugs and Bed Bugs.
Usually, the Executive Committee members attend the conference but this year we would like to extend an invitation to the general membership.
What happens in this conference?
The conference is attended by representatives from various CUPE Library Locals – public and academic. During the conference, aside from the keynote speakers, each local shares the highlights for their system from the previous year — this could range from stories about their contract negotiations to scheduling issues in their system. Attendees share best practices and you end up getting to know people from other systems. They eventually become valuable resources not just for Union matters but also for daily tasks we have in the workplace.
If you’ve attended general membership meetings last year and would like to be more involved in the union, attending this conference is a great first step to get an idea of what kind of commitment and work being involved entails.
If you’re interested or have questions, please email Jennie via   jehamilt932@gmail.com before Feb 22.

CUPE 932 Updates: New President and H & S Committee

New President 

In the December membership meeting, the nominations for President was closed and our sister, Mandy Bullard has been acclaimed as CUPE 932’s new president. With Mandy’s acclamation, one of the Vice President positions is now vacant.

Nominations for Vice President will be opened in the next membership meeting which will be on January 22, 2018 at the Sherwood Branch.

As per Section 8, paragraph b) of our By Laws, “At least one (1) but no more than two (2) of the Vice-Presidents must be a part-time staff member.” Only part-time staff are allowed to be nominated.

If you are interested and/or have any questions, please contact any member of the Executive Committee.

Health & Safety Committee Member Election

Specifics for the election will be announced soon. Updates will be posted here and on Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

CUPE 932’s Statement on the Freelton Extended Access Pilot

It has happened.

Hamilton Public Library is the first public library system in Canada that has gone staffless.

Our employer has been very careful to not use the term “staffless” in this whole ordeal.

We were presented with the following terms: Rural Service Model, Extended Access, Extended Hours and Freelton Pilot Project. It all meant the same thing; the Freelton Branch opened on October 26 at 9:00 am without any staff present.

They tried to appease us by increasing the number of staffed hours in Freelton from 17 to 24 hours every week. This does not change the fact that there will be 36 other hours during that week when staff is replaced by technology and essentially, space.

The strength of our library system is not solely based on access to library materials. Our system is successful because we have people who deliver exceptional customer service every day. And in spite of the membership witnessing the decimation of full-time jobs and have had to get used to the always looming threat of precarity, they have remained with the system because they see the positive effects their daily interactions have with the patrons.

We agree that rural branches should have longer open hours. The City of Hamilton is continuously expanding and new communities are sprouting on its outskirts. But the message that is being conveyed with this Rural Service Model is that the rural community does not deserve to have more staff to attend to their needs. They can only have them part of the time. We hope that when you need assistance in filling out that PDF form for the government, or when you want to know the author of that blue book that you like, or when an emergency happens in Freelton, it would be during that 24 hours that a staff is present. How much cheaper was it to make Freelton “staffless-ready” versus putting a person there during those unstaffed 36 hours?

HPL’s Strategic Priorities of being a Community Beacon, being Relevant and Responsive and being a Creative and Changing Organization all touch on the concept of creating affirmative customer experiences by engaging with them and ensuring that their needs are anticipated. How will these strategies bear fruition if their finest champions are taken out of the equation?

We are not happy that we are the first.