Interim Berkeley Public Library Director Henry Bankhead speaks at a March meeting of the Board of Library Trustees. A union that represents more than 100 library workers has called for Bankhead’s firing. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for Berkeleyside
Members of the largest union chapter representing Berkeley Public Library workers are calling for the firing of the system’s leader, alleging he is “unfit” for the job and bears responsibility for a litany of problems that have tanked employee morale.
Interim library Director Henry Bankhead disputed allegations made in a petition calling for his ouster that was signed by 90 members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 chapter, which represents 113 librarians and staff. Other current and former workers told Berkeleyside they disagreed with the union’s claims and its drive to fire Bankhead.
The petition, which union members delivered at a Board of Library Trustees meeting last week, is a sign of renewed strife inside the system.
A decade ago Berkeley’s libraries were undergoing a tumultuous era in which two consecutive system directors each departed after less than a year in their roles, and the City Council took the then-unprecedented step of firing two library board members. While the five-year term of Director Tess Mayer appeared to bring stability, she left the system last year and the union’s drive comes as the governing board chooses a new permanent leader. Through the library’s spokesperson, Bankhead declined to say whether he is seeking the job.
“The Berkeley Public Library’s patrons and staff deserve trustworthy library administrators who will manage public funds transparently and responsibly, treat patrons and workers with respect and fairness, abide by professional standards and local ordinances for privacy and surveillance technology, and strictly follow rules for public and staff safety,” the union members’ petition read. “With a supermajority vote of no confidence, [union] leadership and its members call on the Berkeley Public Library’s Board of Library Trustees to remove Henry Bankhead from library leadership.”
Bankhead, who was a deputy director before assuming the interim director role after Mayer’s departure, responded to the petition during the April 15 board meeting.
“I appreciate the giving and receiving of feedback, and you are accomplishing that, and I salute you,” he said to the assembled library workers, before rebutting several points from the petition.
Bankhead declined an interview request after the meeting.
In a statement provided by library spokesperson Aimee Reeder, he wrote, “My focus [for] the next few months is preparing Berkeley Public Library for a new director and I remain committed to working with staff on fostering a safe, resourced and respectful workplace to better serve the Berkeley community.”
Union alleges leader’s moves have driven down morale
The union’s petition alleges Bankhead has cultivated a toxic environment, fostered unsafe working conditions and engaged in favoritism and retaliation, among other complaints. The one-page document does not detail specific instances of alleged wrongdoing, but union members in interviews described several incidents involving Bankhead that they said led to the petition.
For instance, librarian Julia Wiswell told Berkeleyside that when staff issued a suspension to a man who had threatened to call immigration authorities on them and other patrons during a heated interaction at the Central Library last year, Bankhead intervened to downgrade the discipline to a warning after talking with the man.
“That left staff feeling very unsafe, and it left patrons feeling very unsafe,” Wiswell said.
In another statement provided by Reeder, Library Services Manager Bill Kolb wrote that the suspension was initially rescinded because staff were the ones who “precipitated the negative interaction” when they asked the man to leave the library because he was riding a scooter inside. Administrators had previously given the man, who has a disability, approval to use the scooter as a mobility device, Kolb said. Asked whether Bankhead made the decision to downgrade the man’s suspension, Kolb said it was “made collaboratively by library leadership.”
Members of the SEIU chapter that represents more than 100 Berkeley Public Library workers read from a petition calling for the firing of Interim Director Henry Bankhead at an April 15 meeting of the Board of Library Trustees. Credit: Nico Savidge/Berkeleyside
Management changed the discipline again after consulting with the city attorney’s office, Kolb wrote, and suspended the man’s library access for six months. Weeks later, an appeal panel that included Kolb downgraded the suspension to one month.
Union members also complained to the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health after the system started a months-long maintenance project last August that left the Central Library without air conditioning during what is typically the hottest stretch of summer. Librarian Jose Guerrero said the building’s upper floors were stifling on hot days with the cooling system off-line, but that the library was short on staff and workers felt they could not take the “cooling breaks” managers recommended. The union alleged an employee suffered symptoms of heat stroke.
A state investigator who visited the Central Library later issued the system three citations for not having a state-mandated plan to prevent heat-related illnesses or training staff and managers on that protocol.
Kolb wrote that the library system “swiftly responded” by developing the plan and providing the mandated training to staff last December. Reeder wrote that the project was managed by Berkeley’s Department of Public Works, and the library system had no control over its timing.
“We tried to be as prepared as possible and to provide access to cooling stations” during the project, Bankhead told the library board in his response to the petition. “We learned through that experience.”
Wiswell and Guerrero also cited complaints about employee trainings and events organized by Bankhead that they viewed as a waste of funding, as well as a new system of “people counters” installed at libraries that union members worry represent new surveillance.
“It doesn’t feel like management has been very responsive or interested in staff perspectives, and I think that’s really brought down staff morale,” Guerrero said.
Bankhead told the library board the counters are meant to provide “a more refined understanding” of how many people visit branches, and the system has taken steps to ensure they can’t be used to track individual visitors.
Berkeley’s Board of Library Trustees is in the midst of a process to hire a new library director. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for Berkeleyside
Allegations come during search for new director
None of the library board’s members responded to the petition or Bankhead’s comments at the April 15 meeting. During a presentation on the search for a new permanent library director, Chair Tanir Ami said the board was reviewing applications and planned to make a hire over the next five weeks.
The union is also developing an unfair labor practice charge that alleges members have faced retaliation since the petition was delivered, according to Wiswell.
Supervising librarian Dan Beringhele told Berkeleyside the allegations in the petition don’t match his positive experiences working with Bankhead, and charged that the union’s leaders have stoked conflicts between management and workers. His concerns were echoed by Dan Cottrell, a former supervising librarian who left the system in January, and another current library employee who declined to share their name because they said they fear retaliation from union leaders.
Beringhele, who said he left the SEIU chapter because he felt it wasn’t representing his interests, said librarians work under difficult circumstances that can include violence and harassment in their workplace.
“We deal with a lot in here, and I think that is a main driver of poor morale,” he said, rather than anything Bankhead has done.
Wiswell wrote in an email that the union is a democratic organization, and “it’s not unusual that there are some folks who don’t agree with every action we take.”
“Dissent from a few members of leadership does not discredit the supermajority of workers who want a safe workplace that reflects the values of library work we believe in,” she added.
At the April 15 board meeting, a union member who declined to share her full name requested a formal response from the board by May 1. She vowed that the chapter would “intensify our collective action” until the workers’ demands are met.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Dan Cottrell.
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