This Friday, the libraries of Catalonia have convened a massive children's event, the Supernit of channel S3, with its new star character, Titó. All? No, the centers of the city of Barcelona have called a partial strike at that time to denounce the mistreatment they feel and above all the lack of personnel that they have been dragging along for years and that entails worsening the service they provide. They will strike from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., with a rally at 6:45 p.m. at the Petit Palau, which is where the S3 Supernit will finally take place in Barcelona.
The works council – of Intersindical and CGT – argues that although libraries are the most highly valued cultural service for citizens, they are treated as a secondary service, with poor maintenance and, above all, a lack of staff and a lack of recognition for his social task. In addition, they denounce that the process of stabilization of interim workers may end up resulting in the dismissal of up to 56 of them.
According to Montse Serra, spokesperson for the committee and librarian at Camp de l'Arpa, she explains that although the libraries adhered to the labor agreement of the Barcelona City Council – the consortium is made up of the City Council and the Provincial Council – there is a great overload of work, because their attributions have been progressively increased and they have more demand to which they cannot respond. “Libraries without staff had even been inaugurated and this has been fixed, but it is still lacking, because itinerant staff cover recurring holes, but not the constant losses that there may be in normal operation, so there are often counters without staff, or rooms have had to be closed because no one could take care of them,” he says.
The manager of the consortium, Ferran Burguillos, explains that an agreement was reached with the unions last October to set a calendar for the time and labor adaptations to the new agreement, which is what they are following. "It is legitimate that they want to improve it, but we hold management meetings and follow the schedule."
Although he acknowledges that for years there has been a lack of personnel, which came mainly from the 2008 crisis, he insists that a lot of work has been done and there has been a lot of investment: in recent years, up to 3.5 million euros of extraordinary budget in maintenance, which are added in addition to 8.5 million for fund purchases, and that the new master plan budgets up to 1.5 million per year for maintenance, not to mention a 50% increase in activities and an increase 11% of roaming staff. For Burguillos, "there have been negotiations and it was agreed to enter into the assessment of the schedules, coexistence protocols are being applied and the call for oppositions is on the calendar."
The director of the Francesca Bonnemaison library, Raquel Muñoz, also from the works council, recalls that on February 9 the libraries of the Barcelona consortium already went on strike and a conciliation meeting was held with representatives of the company: "No They ruled out improving conditions, but they allege that there is no money.”
He also insists that the process of stabilizing the workforce must be separated from an increase in personnel, and not only that, but the works council has not been able to negotiate, as had been done on other occasions within the margin provided by law, the bases of these competitions, so that the current interim workers are left unprotected, just contrary to what the company says, that they have never been so well protected.
To unblock the situation, the committee demands, from the outset, "a real commitment to increase structural personnel."
Catalan version, here
