A Short History of the Librarians Association
By Gay Baines, March 1987

Gay Baines served as the head of the Catalog [Bibliographic Services] department until her retirement in 1996. She compiled this short history just before the Association's 20th anniversary. It is reproduced here with her permission.

The Ad Hoc committee for the Librarians Association was formed in May 1968 to consider the feasibility of forming a union. Discussions led to a determination that a professional union should be formed, and it was decided, in informal meetings chaired by Wally Mohn, that the committee should circulate questionnaires among the professional staff of the library system to determine their receptivity to such an idea.

Matters came to a head when the County Executive, prior to the return date on the questionnaires, announced that he was going to recognize three existing unions in the county. After a hasty conference, the twenty-three members of the Ad Hoc Committee voted to secure the services of Caesar Naples, a labor attorney with the firm of Moot, Sprague, Landy, Marcy, Fernbach & Smythe. At his urging, the officers of the committee drafted a constitution and prepared petitions to be circulated to establish recognition.

Having adopted the constitution, the committee voted to call itself the Librarians Association of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. The date was July 6, 1968. Four days later petitions bearing 147 signatures were presented to the Library Board of Trustees, which on July 29, 1968 recognized "the Librarians Association of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library as the exclusive representative of the Library's employees in the negotiating unit..."

The petitions were circulated with a letter from Wally Mohn dated July 6, 1968. They were due to be returned to the Ad Hoc Committee on July 10. At a meeting prior to circulation of the petitions, members were assigned "tough cases" to persuade. After the petitions were turned in, the former Ad Hoc committee shared their experiences of selling the idea of such an association to librarians unused to the idea of unionism. Most of the professional staff were persuaded, as demonstrated by the number of signatures obtained.

Among the signatures were Ruth Stark, A.S. Wolanin, Rita Dekoff, Denis Day, Jerome Jacob, Janet MacLeod, Pauline Smith, Joanne Pickering, Ruth Burt, Thelma Bratt, Helen Cleland, Eugene Czora, Peter Lee, Olga Allen, Doris Anson, Vivien Krieger, Walter Roeder, Ridgway MaNallie, Evelyn Hess, Mary Szostak, Shirley Stowater, Helen Mook, Jane Van Arsdale, Rose Margaret Waters, G. Herbert Redmill, Stanley Zukowski, Rhea Bush, Barbara Kimberley, Mildred Hoover, Hilda Baxter, Ruth Jarand, Peter Connolly, Frances Hall, Phil DellaPenta, Agnes Reho, Jane Tallchief, Jean Shaughnessy, Marguerite Boldenow, Marietta McGraw.

The first meeting of the Librarians Association as such took place on July 19, 1968 at 7:30 PM in the Niagara Branch Library. It was at this meeting that the first steps toward contract negotiations were made. On Aug. 16, 1968, the first business meeting was held, and the Association petitioned the State of NY PERB "for certification and to review questions concerning the recognition of employee organizations under Paragraph 207 of the [Public Employees Fair Employment] Act."

The first negotiating team meeting was on September 20, 1968, at 3:00 PM. Some of the early concerns of the Association were voiced at this time: increased work areas in the subject departments of the Central Library; elimination of promotional Civil Service exams; transferability; more varied experience for trainees; rotation for new librarians and old; Senior Librarian II positions in B&L [Business and Labor], Education, Music, Readers Library [now Popular Materials].

On October 8, 1968, the first contract was negotiated with the Board of Trustees. It was a three-point one year contract.

I. Salaries:

Trainees 6,800-8,420
Juniors 7,800-9,720
Is 8,600-10,700
IIs 9,400-11,700
IIIs 10,800-13,300

II. Educational Differential Incentive: $15.00 per college credit hour beyond five years of college courses approved by the Director. Maximum per person $180.00, calendar year 1969.

III. We will automatically receive the same benefits other County employees get that are not specified in our contract.