St. Charles Library employees report impasse with Library Board over contract issues

St. Charles Public Library employees who formed a union last year said they are receiving pushback from Library Board trustees about wanting to include protections in their contract regarding anti-discrimination, anti-bullying and workplace safety in their first contract with the board.

“Thus far, the board has not agreed to include this in the contract,” adult services librarian Sutton Skowron said.

She is one of the members on the union bargaining team. The union has been negotiating with the board since April.

Skowron said the union wants to make sure such protections are in the contract, especially given the fact that a future board could change policy.

“If it’s in our contract, it’s set,” Skowron said. “It’s a way to ensure that we’re not going to be discriminated against. Even if the laws change, we’re not going to be discriminated against. We do have members of the LGBTQ community as employees.”

In a statement, board trustees said they currently are in contract negotiations for the initial collective bargaining agreement with the union.

“We look forward to our continued negotiations with the union and do not have further comment,” according to the statement.

In July 2021, the majority of employees at the St. Charles Public Library filed to form a union through AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) Council 31. The union was certified in November 2021.

The library’s administration and managers are not part of the union. Skowron and other union members spoke to board trustees Sept. 14 about the impasse.

“Adding our proposed policies into our contract is a way to safeguard your ideas and hard work and to make the library a safer workplace, free from discrimination,” young adult librarian Brandon Buckley said in addressing Library Board trustees at their board meeting. “We’re not asking for anything that isn’t in any standard union contract. We want to work with you to create a safe environment for staff and our patrons.”

Skowron said the union has reached agreement with Library Board trustees on other issues.

“We’ve agreed we’re going to have a labor management committee that meets monthly,” she said. “It’s basically to discuss any issues that might arise so that we can head them off early. Nobody wants to go to arbitration. We absolutely want to work with each other for this to run smoothly. So we’ve agreed on the terms for that committee.”

They also have agreed on what steps should be taken if a dispute arises between management and the union or an employee.

“Another thing that we agreed on is a new employee probationary period of 90 days,” Skowron said. “Currently, it’s six months.”

Given that it is the union’s first contract, Skowron is not surprised that it is taking so long to complete the negotiations with the Library Board trustees.

“We knew this wasn’t going to be done in six months,” Skowron said. ”We knew this was going to be a process that could take a year or perhaps even longer.”

The Library Board also is searching for a new library director. In April, former St. Charles Public Library Director Edith Craig submitted her resignation letter announcing that she was stepping down after more than five years in her position. Her last day was at the end of April. Craig was hired in September 2016 at an annual starting salary of $108,000.

Craig’s hiring sparked controversy among some staff members because she did not have previous experience as a library director. In an email to the library’s staff after Craig was hired, then-board president Tory Haines acknowledged that one of the staff members’ major concerns was her lack of experience as a director.

“The board placed experience very low on our list of priorities,” Haines’ email in response to staff concerns at the time said. “Our previous director had a stellar resume and a wealth of experience, but was not a good fit for our library.”