New protest by library workers to make their "discontent" visible

BarcelonaThe works council of the Barcelona Libraries Consortium held a call this Tuesday at noon, in front of the Sagrada Família, a call to all staff to massively support the strike, which has been active since the end of May. About fifty workers participated in the rally. Pau Solsona, delegate of the CGT and the works council of the Barcelona Libraries Consortium, stated that the strike continues because they have not seen any steps from the Barcelona City Council or any rapprochement, and he criticized their "immobility" and accused them of pursuing a "tactic of attrition".

The council, for its part, explains that the City Council's proposal "has advanced during negotiations to the offering of the following main points": a 35-hour work week for the 482 staff members, which currently only includes library technical staff; the formalization of the entire staff, when almost everyone is now labor personnel; a new hourly model to apply the 35 hours to the staff in morning or afternoon shifts and one day a week of split shifts with eight and a half hours of work; integration of library technical staff into the municipal agreement, with an 8% pay improvement, which would place them at a gross annual salary of 42,866 euros, to which seniority and holiday pay should be added if they work weekends; the same municipal agreement offers additional improvements from a social, work-life balance, and internal promotion perspective, as well as pay improvements.

The continuation of the strike will be decided at a meeting

Pau Solsona has highlighted that the protest aims to give visibility to the situation of Barcelona's libraries, which are "in a moment of conflict and which has not changed during the summer". "We have not advanced at all —he added—, and we want to make our discomfort visible". He indicated that they are protesting symbolically in front of the Sagrada Familia to "denounce the prioritization of tourism over public services".

Solsona recalled that the indefinite strike began on May 26, and this Tuesday they have called on all staff to support it massively and close as many libraries as possible. For now, from the works council they do not have data regarding the follow-up.

Among the red lines of the negotiation are "a matter of schedules and work-life balance" and he criticized that the City Council does not want to move away from their proposal to agree on "a weekly workday of eleven daily hours", which they, he assured, will not accept. Afterwards, he added, there continues to be a "remuneration and equalization issue compared to other sectors of the City Council".

The next steps that Barcelona's library workers must take will be decided at an assembly to be held on September 14. The Library Consortium recalls that "ordinary activity in libraries since the start of the strike has been maintained with 70% of facilities open", and that regarding workers, "10% have been on strike during the week and 16% on weekends".