Talks Resume in Stark County Strike

As the strike at Stark County District Library in Canton, Ohio, wound up its second week, negotiators for the library board and members of Local 925 of the Service Employees International Union agreed to meet the afternoon of August 11 with federal mediator Tom Conley.

The union had been trying to arrange a meeting since the strike began. On August 8 union leaders requested Executive Director Nan Johnston to follow a nonbinding resolution approved the day before by the city council to bring a state-appointed fact-finder in to mediate talks. But Johnston declined the next day, saying such intervention was not needed because a federal mediator was involved in the negotiations, according to the August 10 Akron Beacon Journal.

Some protesters have taken their gripes to the Web, with a site that offers advice on how to support the strike, including a “dirty tricks” page that suggests calling the library with difficult reference questions or hacking the library computer.

Posted August 14, 2000.