136 Orange County library workers will lose their jobs

[TexasTowelie]

County officials plan to eliminate the jobs of 136 part-time pages at local libraries, bowing to pressure from union leaders who have objected to the county’s practice of granting the nonunion workers indefinite extensions of their short-term contracts.

Pages, who help out at OC Public Library’s 33 branches mainly by shelving books, are considered “extra help employees” – a county designation that typically carries a six-month contract. In past years, the county has extended the contracts indefinitely, with some pages serving for more than a decade.

But the Orange County Employees Association claimed the practice violates its contract with the county, and in the past two years it has pushed for those extra-help positions to be made full time or limited to short-term contracts.

Following the union’s pressure, the county decided it would not be cost-effective to constantly rehire and retrain pages, so it opted to eliminate the position. Though it wasn’t immediately clear when that decision was made, pages say they have been informed during the last couple weeks that they soon will be losing their jobs.

Read more: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/county-730784-pages-library.html

[liberal N proud]

1. Regardless of how much any of them do for the library or patron, some official is seeing titles

And valuable employees will lose their jobs just because they had a specific title.

[marybourg]

2. Maybe they'll hire them

as regular employees in union jobs. What they've been doing 'til now, pretending they're "temporary" workers then re-hiring them every six months at low non-union wages, is a scam.

[Sherman A1]

3. Agreed

This was simply a poor management excuse to work around the Union contract. The work that these folks will remain to be done and it will need someone to do it. One hopes that many if not all will be re-hired under the terms of the contract and enjoy the wages and benefits from the labor agreement.

[justhanginon]

4. Yes! If it is a valid job then hire full time union workers.

[Travis_0004]

6. I would imagine a lot of senior citizens dont want a full time job

They may enjoy getting out of the house and being active for 10 hours, but dont want to work 40 hours.

[marybourg]

8. That's O.K. My mom was a

part-time "library aide" (her official title) in a college library when she was a senior cit.. But she was union and got the same bennies (proportionately) as full time staff.

[upaloopa]

5. I retired from a CA county that did much the sam thing. When budget time comes around they plan to

use "extra help" rather than fill a vacant union position or hire needed employees because they pay extra help much less. The extra help do not get benefits or paid holidays and counties have lots of paid holidays.

If the county needs the workers they should hire full time union employees instead of filling a 40 hour week with 4 or 5 part time "extra help."

[SunSeeker]

7. Ah yes, the infamous "as needed" position.

I worked as an "as needed" library page while in college. But there were pages at my library that had been there decades, and still designated "as needed" part-timers with no benefits. It is a scam that takes advantage of desperate and vulnerable people.