Striking to save Libraries on Monday 8 February

UNISON members in Lambeth libraries and UNITE members in Greenwich libraries are on strike on Monday 8 February to defend library services. It is good to see that action can be coordinated between members of different trade unions!

In Lambeth the strike is to defend all ten of Lambeth’s libraries in the face of plans agreed by the Council Cabinet to retrench to five main libraries (with two libraries given to community organisations without staff and three turned into “bookish gyms” by Greenwich Leisure Limited, GLL, - in the face of opposition from the local Labour Party and alternative plans supported by managers and Libraries Friends’ Groups ).

In Greenwich – where GLL run the libraries – the strike is to defend the mobile library service. What both these strikes have in common, and share with the lobby of Parliament on the following day is a commitment to defend the library service from the threats of underfunding and outsourcing driven by Government policies.