Middletown Library Employees Ratify Contract!

Amid all the hoopla over the former director, it has escaped notice that the library workers (not the director) lacked a contract which expired July 1 (BTW, it should be noted that the former director never had an actual physical contract that I was aware of) . For all the hard-knocks the Trustees have taken, it was through their hard work & the union reps that this happened. Having negotiated a contract on behalf of the library trustees myself, I can vouch for the difficulty of doing this task - especially when it involves employees whom you know and respect. You want to do the best you can for them and for the town's taxpayers who foot the bills.

Months of meetings are required. And the trustees get zero for this. They do it out of a sense of civic duty. Of course, if they all feel the need to resign (and I hope that they don't) there won't be anyone to actually sign the contract.

The library employees unanimously ratified a new contract last night. The basic details are these: workers get a retroactive raise of between 1% & 3% to July 1, 2006. All workers will get a 4% raise on January 1 of 2007, 2008, & 2009. All workers getting health insurance will be paying 10% of the premium by the end of the contract (there is less than a handful of these). Most other changes were minor.

It's nice to be posting good news about the library for a change. The library isn't, nor should it be, all about the director. The fact that it's near the coming holidays just make it all the sweeter.

Congratulations & thanks to all who made this possible and will receive little public thanks for it.