The libraries of Barcelona announce a strike for next April 22, the eve of Sant Jordi, and the day of the proclamation, which this year will finally be given by the British writer David Walliams at the Born Center de Cultura i Memòria. “The change of location and the fact that this place was chosen instead of the Gabriel García Márquez library is not because of the strike, but because of a capacity issue, since before the auditorium could accommodate 140 people and now 250 will be able to attend, and “We are studying whether it could be expanded since tickets have been sold out in less than 24 hours,” the Consorci de Librarians confirm to La Vanguardia.
The assembly of library staff in the Catalan capital has announced the call for a strike on their Twitter account, where they have denounced that “the agreements are not being met” and that “we cannot sustain a quality service without conciliation.” They also regret that although libraries are the most valued cultural service for citizens, they are treated as a “secondary service” and that there is a “lack of recognition of the sector.”
Montse Serra, member of the works council of the Barcelona Library Consortium – made up of the Intersindical-CSC and the CGT – explains to this newspaper that “the increase in workloads of library staff has been claimed for some time. There is more demand than can be answered. And now the company wants to go further with new time structures that affect the entire workforce and that have made two problems evident: family conciliation and the need for an increase in staff. It doesn’t help that the traveling staff, who fill recurring holes, has decreased.”
Serra recalls that the strike “is called for the entire day” and “they still have to finish talking about where a rally will take place. The initial idea was to do it in front of the Gabriel García Márquez library, since the proclamation was going to be held there. But on Friday we found out that it was changing locations. We have to finish coordinating.”
From the Consorci they assure that “all the normative conciliation measures agreed upon within the framework of the City Council and the Provincial Council are strictly applied, and library staff also have compensation days added to permits and vacations to compensate for the application of special hours.” . However, they assure that “we continue working on the agreements and the reorganization of the service. In recent years, the workforce has increased by 11% and all the deficits from the time of the economic crisis have been resolved.”
