Local Business Decries Library Lockout

We received the following as part of a weekly newsletter from For Good Measure, a Cadboro Bay business that we frequent. Good evidence that the discontent with the lockout is growing more vociferous.

VICTORIA' S SECRET

Well, no, this isn't the lingerie issue. It's about your local library - locked up now for more than four weeks.

The library board, municipal politicians and the GVLRA negotiators paint this as a labour issue (greedy, intransigent workers). It's really a story of inept management and irresponsibility.

Whether or not they now appreciate the principle of pay equity, the fact is that fifteen years ago the responsible parties in this dispute did accept it. They agreed on the protocols for job value comparisons and that City of Victoria positions would be used as the comparators. The money has never been budgeted to pay for it, and the same people who signed off on this now refuse to even discuss it.

We know that Canadians don't value their public institutions as they once did. But we wonder - how can our local politicians claim to value the library service for which they are responsible when they lock the doors and turn their faces away from their staff and the public?

Maintaining their lockout in its fifth week, the employer, its directors and their political masters all declare they are helpless to solve this sham; as taxpayers who fund the service we know different.

Mayors Causton, Hill, Leonard, Lowe, Twa and Young aren't running a private business whose revenue they would jeopardize by shutting down; they already have your money, dear taxpayer.

Six local mayors and their councillors have refused to honour a written commitment to their staff; instead they took your money, and then locked the doors.

It's pretty shameful. And that's Victoria's dirty little secret.