As a librarian at the Walnut Creek Library, Rita Carrasco is used to the hustle and bustle that comes with working in a place that is so essential to the community.
With two stories, its central location to downtown and BART, and the nearby park, the library gets hundreds of visitors a day—and Carrasco and her coworkers show up to work every day with a smile on their faces eager to answer people’s questions and help them find the information they’re looking for.
“Every day is different, which is awesome,” said Carrasco, who is an AFSCME Local 1 member. “There are constant interruptions to your work. You have to be willing to be flexible. And you’re always thinking on your feet.”
These days, Carrasco and many of our library sisters and brothers in Contra Costa County are dealing with a different set of interruptions to their work.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the closure of all Contra Costa County libraries, and the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors decided to eliminate about 40 library positions to save money. As a backwards solution, the county offered many of our members other county jobs—but in different departments and in very different roles.
As a result, Carrasco and many others have had to get used to serving the county in a new way: as COVID-19 disaster service workers operating the main call center.
Instead of taking calls about where to find a book, instead of sorting and putting books back on shelves, and instead of showing everyone from children to seniors how to access community resources, they’ve spent the last several months taking calls about coronavirus scares and scheduling tests.
It’s not as exciting as being a librarian, that’s for sure. But many of our members are finding ways to stay positive about their new “essential” jobs.
“When you hear the desperation in someone’s voice as they’re trying to find out if they have COVID-19 or not, you realize it’s not a big deal to spend eight hours a day stuck on the phone in a cubicle,” Carrasco said.
The downside is not all the new jobs our members have taken in Contra Costa County pay as well as before and they don’t all have the same union protections. Many folks also are becoming skeptical of the county’s handling of the situation because, although they were told their new roles in the call center would only last temporarily, their assignments keep getting extended.
What’s more, now that the libraries are offering curbside pickup and foot traffic is starting to increase again, they’re understaffed because library workers are still working at the call center.
“At this point, a majority of our members are back to working in the libraries again,” said Jessica Lilja, a librarian at the Walnut Creek Library who is the library unit president. “But some of our folks are still not back to their normal assignments, and we’re feeling the strain of their absence.”
That’s why Local 1 members have been constantly meeting with the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to persuade them to come up with a better solution.
The board is scheduled to hold a budget hearing next week to discuss COVID-19-related cuts, and our members are planning on working with a coalition of Contra Costa County labor unions to voice their concerns and get the county to change course.
"While we're happy that not everyone lost work during the pandemic, it's important to remember that we can't allow our library sisters and brothers to get left behind,” Lilja said. “The county needs to put in more support, and the community needs to know what's really going on.”
The American Library Association recently launched a petition urging leaders in Congress to provide emergency aid to libraries throughout the country that have been impacted by COVID-19. Take action with us and write a letter to your representative to let them know that, when libraries are left behind, our communities are left behind. Sign the petition today.
