By Anthony Rifilato
Employees have been working without a contract since 2004, and members of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) said that they earn 20 percent below the Nassau County average. In a sign of protest last year, workers began wearing black, and this past April workers held a demonstration outside the library demanding a "fair" raise.
"I don't think the process has stopped," said Diane Lass, head of circulation at the library, who is part of the negotiating team. Lass said that they have gone "above and beyond" the required mediation meetings in an attempt to resolve the matter with the board. "If you can't reach an understanding, under the Taylor Law, you go to the next step," said Lass.
That would be a fact-finding process, in which an independent mediator would hear both sides of the issue and make recommendations to the library board in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
"It's obvious from our standpoint that this group is underpaid," said CSEA spokeswoman Rachel Langert. "Input from an independent person may help the board see the light. We're hoping it will make a difference."
During the most recent negotiations, the library board said that it offered a $2,000 salary adjustment and a 14.5 percent salary increase over five years, retroactive to July 2004, which employees said is unacceptable.
"Fourteen-and-a-half percent is misleading," said Gale Baselice, an employee who is part of the negotiating team. "That's less than 3 percent a year."
But Library Board President Kevin Kamen said that the board's offer has been fair and that it would bring salaries up to a competitive level with other libraries throughout Nassau County.
"Then they would get their increase, which would bring them up to where they ought to be," Kamen said. "This is a wonderful offer and we upped the ante at least four times. This is as far as we're going."
Kamen has also said that the contract employees now have was negotiated with the union, and if their salaries are too low, the union is partly to blame, something members said is untrue.
"[The union] has quite clearly broken off mediation efforts and now has initiated fact-finding procedures," said Kamen. "We had hoped to come to terms much sooner because the staff has been working hard and quite frankly, they deserve a raise."
The Nassau County Library Association conducted an annual voluntary survey of the county's libraries not long ago. The survey found that for the 2004-05 fiscal year, the average salary for an experienced librarian was more than $58,000, whereas in Baldwin, the same experienced librarians earned an average of $46,350.
But even those salaries come after years of service as an employee, staff members said. For instance, one Baldwin resident, who asked not to be named, said she earns $56,000 per year after working only seven years full-time in a nearby library as a "Librarian II," which is a senior position such as head of reference or head of the children's department. Meanwhile, a Baldwin library colleague with the same position makes $45,500 after 15 years as a full-time employee, the woman said.
"It's in my home community but I would never apply for a job there," the resident said. "I was shocked to learn that I make a few thousand more than those in Baldwin who have been librarians before me. It hurts me to say it but I do better working elsewhere."
Low salary, many employees said, is one of the main reasons that Baldwin Public Library has lost hardworking staff to other libraries, or employees have moved out-of-state because they can't afford to live here. But for the most part, employees feel under-appreciated, CSEA union leaders said.
"It has a tremendous impact on morale," said CSEA Library Unit President Kathy Whiteway. "We had a woman just leave and move to North Carolina. We've lost so many great people here. A lot of people loved working here, but given the salaries, no one is going to stick around for 25 years and retire here."
But Kamen disputed those claims. "We have had very little turnover in the 28 years that I've been at the library and we seek to have continuity in the future as well," Kamen said. "Another reason we're hopeful of upgrading the salary scales is because we want to be able to attract top talent to the library staff, and as long as we can't reach an agreement, our hands are tied."
Kamen said that the board is asking employees to contribute $635 annually toward their individual health insurance costs, something that is not unique to Baldwin, he said.
"Most libraries throughout Long Island have staff contributing toward their individual health insurance plan," said Kamen. "Health insurance goes up 10 to 12 percent every year, and what we're trying to do is be fair about this. We're asking for a small percentage because the increase is costing the taxpayers an exorbitant amount of money and we need to share some of those costs with those who are receiving health insurance."
But employees disagree, and said that if they are forced to contribute toward their health insurance, then salaries must increase to meet those demands.
"They certainly don't pay us enough for us to pay into our health benefits," said Whiteway.
