PEORIA, Ill. – Members of the union representing Peoria Public Library employees say they will hold an informational picket next week as they say there is “slow movement” in their negotiations on a new contract.
AFSCME Local 3464 says the information picket will be held next Tuesday starting at 4:30 p.m. outside the library’s main branch downtown.
25 News cites the so-far unsuccessful negotiations on a new contract, along with the city’s recent decision to give more than $20 million in bonds to the Peoria Civic Center as reasons.
They say there’s “more than enough wealth and prosperity in this city and in this library system” for workers to not live on the brink of poverty or near destitution.
The employees have been working for around two months under an expired contract.
“Like so many other public employees in this city, we were lauded as ‘heroes’ for working during the pandemic, but now when the time comes to reward that work with something more than empty platitudes, we are told we have to live in poverty in order for the library system to work. There is more than enough wealth and prosperity in this city and in this library system to ensure that no one who does this crucial work for our community has to do so in a state of housing insecurity and living one emergency away from destitution.” — AFSCME Local 3464 statement, per 25 News
