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Barnet UNISON Press Release: 6 June 2016 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Three day strike called by Barnet Council Library workers

UNISON members working in Barnet Libraries are taking industrial action on the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th of June 2016 in opposition to the Council’s plan to outsource the Library Service.

What the Council intends for Barnet Libraries

• Library posts will be cut by 46%, a loss of 52 full time equivalent posts

• Staffed hours will be reduced by 70% (despite overwhelming opposition to this from respondents to the Council’s Library consultations)

• Under 15 year olds unaccompanied by an adult will not be able to use libraries during unstaffed hours, which will be for most of the time libraries are open

• Library space to be reduced, thus cutting study space and book stock

• Four libraries to be run by “community groups”

• Phase 3 alternative delivery model to be identified for this section.

More detailed analysis of the destruction of the Library service can be found in our report entitled “Direct and Collateral Damage to the Future of Barnet Libraries” here

http://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/publications/public-bodies/transformation-and-public-service-reform/options-appraisals/direct-and-collateral-damage-to-barnet-librari/barnet-libraries-unison-march-2016.pdf

UNISON Picket Lines will be at the following Barnet Libraries:

• Monday 13^th June – Mill Hill Library (Hartley Avenue, Mill Hill, London NW7 2HX) from 8.30 am
• Tuesday 14^th June – North Finchley(Ravensdale Ave, North Finchley N12 9HP) from 8.30 am followed by a demonstration outside Barnet House 12-1 pm
• Wednesday 15^th June – Chipping Barnet Library (3 Stapylton Road, Barnet, EN5 4QT) from 8.30 am

» Read more

Background

For those unfamiliar with the Barnet Libraries debacle please watch this short animation which details the plans for our fantastic Library Service.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3XfibjbJuA

Keith Martin for local government worker, resident and long standing Libraries campaigner wrote a response to the Local Times newspaper survey “Have your say over Barnet future Library service” http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/14528718.Have_your_say_over_Barnet___s_future_library_service/

Keith has given permission to share his response with our members in the Library Service.

“Would I volunteer?”

“Mrs Angry expresses my views succinctly in her Broken Barnet blog.

http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/the-eve-of-destruction-act-now-or-wave.html

and here http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/barnet-libraries-capita-it-crash.html

1. Half the staff will be losing their livelihoods,
2. You cannot replace professional library staff with volunteers,
3. The proposals amount to the virtual destruction of the library service,
4. Shrinking libraries, halving the book stock, the highly risky use of unstaffed DIY libraries. All are dangerous, stupid gambles.
5. What next?
6. Why not instead cut the massive allowances and perks received by councillors?

2. Now the view from me. I have been a library volunteer at Friern Barnet Community Library for nearly four years now, initially at the invitation of Phoenix and the squatters who began their occupation on 5 September 2012. My experiences are recorded in my book Friern Barnet – the library that refused to close. I was a co-defendant with the squatters in the action by Barnet Council for their eviction in December 2012, and one of the original band of trustees appointed by the community to run the library in succession to the squatters.

Would I volunteer for Reuben Thompstone’s plans to reshape the library service; to harness Barnet’s community spirit?

Would I thus be a party to putting chartered librarians and other professional library staff on the dole, after they have attempted to train unskilled volunteers such as myself to replace them? Would I be a party to actions which have as their goal the closure of libraries and the wrecking of educational opportunities to schoolchildren which generations of library users have benefitted from as their birthright?

No, I would not.

This is why I am active in the campaign to save not only libraries in Barnet but throughout the United Kingdom.

Best wishes

Keith”