New York Public Librarians Get Raise at Last

The librarians of New York Public Library (NYPL) have finally received a 16-percent raise after more than three years of protests and negotiations with the city. NYPL librarians had not received significant wage increases for nearly eight years, and the library had been losing large numbers of its professional staff to suburban, school, and private libraries paying significantly higher salaries. NYPL Guild Head Ray Markey says that frequently NYPL branch libraries "had to put up signs in their windows: 'Closed for Lack of Staff.'" Library officials admitted to the New York Times that almost half the branches in the Bronx had no children's librarians.

On April 16, members of the librarians' union ratified an agreement, which gave all NYPL librarians an immediate eight-percent increase, as well as two four-percent increases the city had already agreed to for many of its employees. New York's mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, had been resistant to giving large increases to public librarians, claiming that other city employees, such as teachers and police officers, would want equally large increases.

Because of technicalities in the negotiations, librarians at the Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Borough Library, which also serve parts of New York City, will not automatically receive the same increases. But Markey says he anticipates that the other two libraries will make similar agreements with their unions "without any big problems." Queens Borough Library Director Gary Strong would say only that "discussions are going on now."