Three unions representing Kalamazoo Public Library employees are at the bargaining table.
Qynce Chumley is the treasurer for the Union of KPL Aides and Hourly Custodians.
They said the UKPLA has been negotiating alongside two other employee unions, one for librarians and the other for support staff.
Chumley added they’ve reached a tentative agreement with KPL on issues like working conditions and performance reviews, but said it also makes sure KPL cannot replace members of any KPL union with artificial intelligence.
"We were more so concerned about the other two unions, which is the librarians and the library assistants, because those employees are our supervisors, in my union. And so if their jobs were at risk of being replaced with AI, we have a big concern about that because we don't want to be being supervised by AI,” Chumley said.
"We don't want those processes to suddenly be being managed by AI. A lot of people in my union also really want to move up and become librarians eventually and so we want to protect our future jobs."
Wages
The unions are still working to reach a deal relating to pay and benefits.
Chumley said library aides and custodians are paid $15.30 an hour, no matter how long they've worked at KPL.
"Especially with the rising cost of living in Kalamazoo that has been going up a lot, especially over the last six years, people are finding it harder and harder every year to keep up."
But they added that KPL's pay is also just high enough to put members at risk of losing health coverage.
“We sort of work at a wage that puts most people sort of right on the cusp of being kicked off of Medicaid, or even some of our members already are losing access to Medicaid.”
Chumley said the UKPLA wants hourly pay increased to $21. He said that KPL can afford it.
“Most of the library's revenue comes from property taxes and because property values have really been soaring in Kalamazoo over the last four or even more years, the library's revenue has increased at a pace much greater than our wage increases.”
KPL's administration declined to be interviewed for this story or to comment on the specifics of the negotiations, but said in a statement that it was dedicated to reaching a fair deal through the bargaining process.
"We remain committed to negotiating in good faith as that process continues. Throughout this process, our shared goal remains providing excellent service to the Kalamazoo community while working toward a fair agreement," the statement said.
Librarians' union
Stacy Nowicki is on the bargaining team for the Kalamazoo Professional Librarians' Association, one of the other KPL unions currently in negotiations.
Nowicki said her union is also fighting for pay that she said would better match what other institutions pay their librarians, but she added that getting KPL to agree may be difficult.
“I have seen some of the initial offers— numbers that have come back from the administration and they are not satisfactory, in fact downright insulting. So, I think it's going to be a hard road when it comes to the economics,” Nowicki said.
"But we're going to do the best we can because we're locked in for three years. We want to make sure that we can benefit our members, given that the economy is spiraling out of control and everything is so much more expensive."
Additionally, she said the KPLA is also fighting for other benefits, including eight weeks of paid parental leave.
Nowicki said KPL currently does not provide this, forcing librarians to use their personal leave or family and medical leave.
“When a colleague of mine had a child, they got FMLA so that they could make sure that their job was secure, but they no longer got paid for those weeks that they were off with their newborn child and they had to also pay their own full rate for their health insurance."
