Union representing Peoria Public Library employees plans Tuesday informational picket

PEORIA (25News Now) - AFSCME Local 3464, the union that represents staff at the Peoria Public Library, is slated to hold an informational picket from 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Tuesday outside the main library at 107 N.E. Monroe.

The union says in a release they are doing this because of the slow movement in negotiations as well as the City of Peoria’s plan to provide $20 million in bonds to help the Peoria Civic Center.

Library staff have been bargaining for three months without a contract “in an effort to secure living wages and dignity in the workplace.”

“Like so many other public employees in this city, we were lauded as “heroes” for working during the pandemic, but now when the time comes to reward that work with something more than empty platitudes, we are told we have to live in poverty in order for the library system to work,” the release said. “There is more than enough wealth and prosperity in this city and in this library system to ensure that no one who does this crucial work for our community has to do so in a state of housing insecurity and living one emergency away from destitution.”