the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jun 20, 2022
Workers at Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt public library system announced a union drive in early June. Already 300 of 520 workers had signed on during more than a year of organizing, including security guards, custodians, book binders, circulation staff, artists, and tech and maintenance workers.
In the libraries, chronic understaffing means hundreds of positions stay vacant, and library staff is overworked. Management makes workers do the jobs of multiple people and tells part time workers to do extra hours without overtime.
On a recent hot day, five of the branch libraries were closed because of not having working air conditioning. Obviously, the system should hire more maintenance. Even during the last economic recovery, the libraries had a long hiring freeze causing 10 to 20% of positions to be vacant.
The workers are right to organize.