Library workers who have waged a difficult year-long struggle in defence of national agreements are now faced with a determined effort by Hackney council management to break their strike using scab labour.

At the same time they are faced with the imposition of new Monday-Friday timetables, which they have unanimously rejected as they are pre-empting the outcome of the employment tribunal due in February.
However they respond to these they are likely to be faced with further deductions of pay and increasing confrontation with the council.

Meanwhile, agency staff have suddenly appeared at all seven
libraries completely out of the blue – even library managers weren'ttold about them! They raise the prospect of an all-out effort to break the library dispute, and the union, using any and every means – by a Labour council under a Labour government!

The council are paying for this staff using £168,000 saved from not opening libraries on Saturdays and "set aside for contingencies."
The council is keeping the cost of employing "Saturday sessional"
scab workers a secret, even while it pretends to "consult" library staff about the new timetables (the Human Resources Framework requires the council to inform staff of all "vital information" in the consultation process). Meanwhile the library stock fund is frozen and there is an moratorium on al spending.

On January 11 three libraries are due to open with purely
scab "Saturday sessional" labour. These workers have been informed about our dispute and urged to join Unison. We need maximum support on the picket lines from 8am on Saturday 11 January, at the Technology and Learning Centre, Mare Street; Shoreditch Library, Hoxton High Street (behind the Community College; and Stoke Newington Library, Church Street (next to the Municipal Offices at top of Albion Road).

We urgently appeal to all active Unison members and trade unionists in Hackney to support these pickets and defeat this strike-breaking plan.

This is a message from Hackney Trades Union Council. Please
circulate as widely as possible to trade union members and branches throughout the UK and beyond. Please show your support by taking action as outlined below.

please copy message of support to  hackney.unison@unisonfree.net