COUNCIL 2 HAS launched a campaign to assist more than 1,000 employees from the King County Library System in forming their own local union.

The campaign, started in January, is aimed at organizing the library system’s employees, who include librarians, library assistants, pages, information technology workers, and library technicians. The employees work in 42 community libraries.

The campaign is being directed by an organizing committee of 46 King County Library System employees, supported by Council 2 Director of Organizing Bill Keenan and other Council 2 staff.

The committee meets collectively every two weeks to discuss the issues and progress of the campaign.

In addition, Council 2 has retained Susan Cole, who was involved in a previous organizing effort at the King County Library System. Cole is a former president of the Pierce County Library Union, Local 3787, which is represented by Council 2.

“The campaign is going extremely well,” reports Keenan. “We have received a lot of support and a large number of authorization cards have been signed.”

The campaign’s goal is to amass sufficient support from employees to enable a petition to be filed with the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) for the employees to be represented by Council 2.

An unusual feature involves the way in which Council 2 representatives have worked with the employer. Three members of the organizing committee and two Council 2 staff members met with the director of the King County Library System and told him up front that they would be launching the campaign.

As a result of the discussions, the organizing committee and the Library Director signed a “fair campaign practices pledge” March 12. The pledge meant the system administration would allow employees to express their opinions openly and freely and discuss campaign issues during non-working time in the library system.

The pledge also means union supporters may have access to buildings and they will be free of any discipline or harassment or coercion in campaigning for representation by Council 2. Both sides agreed to present accurate information to employees. Keenan says the campaign organizers will continue with the card-signing process until they achieve their goal of petitioning perc.