If you want to pass it on, don't f-lock the post, 'kay?

[gurdymonkey]

Because then I will be forced to simply Google it myself and post the news stories as I find them.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=326650&src=
http://chicagoist.com/2009/10/02/oak_brook_man_hates_libraries_child.php
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Oak-Brook-Librarians-Turn-To-Teamsters-63086972.html

It should be noted that the Village of Oakbrook, IL funds its village services without property taxes. From the latest village newsletter (dated Summer 2009): 
At the present time our Village is being faced with an unprecedented dilemma. Costs are rising for our Police Department, Fire Department, Public Works and Library, but the sales tax that once supported all these services is
no longer what it was. As retail sales and other taxes have dropped off, the Village Board must take extraordinary means to keep the Village of Oak Brook free of a local levy.

Our primary objective is to maintain these Village services without instituting a local levy. I continue to find that many of our residents are still unaware that they pay no local property taxes for fire, police, public works or our library. Even the Oak Brook Sports Core – which includes the Bath and Tennis Club – needs some support from sales taxes. I am happy to report that the Board has privatized the poolside grill and that some nice changes have already taken place there. Unfortunately, the weather has not been too cooperative thus far, but the Village will no longer sustain a loss on the grill as we did last year when the grill lost $11,000 for the season. Now the Village will receive a percentage of sales so we stand to make, rather than lose, a little revenue.

Our new Village Board has made a commitment that the Oak Brook Library will retain its’ regular hours of operation with no curtailment of the hours that our residents and patrons have come to enjoy at our Library. I want to dispel the rumor that the Library hours were going to be cut because this is not going to happen. Of necessity, the Board is making a closer scrutiny of costs and services everywhere. Some areas will need adjustment, but the Library hours are definitely not one of them.

Comments

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

Mom's union almost joined the Teamsters. (For those playing at home, Mom is a retired librarian.)

[takadai-no-tora.livejournal.com]

When I worked for the University of California and we worker bees were looking to unionize, we were going with AFSCME which is part of the Teamsters. University library management thought it was all very funny, "Oh, you want to join the park pooper-scooper and trash truck drivers union..." until someone reminded them that if we went AFSCME and we went out on strike, all it would take would be one little student clerk with a picket sign at the delivery driveway and no Teamster would deliver anything to the campus. They stopped laughing pretty quick.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

Did these people learn nothing from the baseball strike? You know, in which it was pointed out that they'd better settle quickly because the guys driving the beer trucks were deciding not to deliver to ball parks.

[takadai-no-tora.livejournal.com]

This was back in the early 1970s, so I think we were before the baseball strike.
Now I'm a member of NEA/CTA [National Education Association/California Teachers' Association] During George W. Bush's first term, IIRC, his Secretary of Education called the NEA a "terrorist organization" for some reason or other. I don't know if he thought we'd be scared; what a bunch of state and local groups did instead was make buttons that said "Card-Carrying Member of a Terrorist Organization and proud of it -NEA-" Yeah, I wore mine.

[laurensa.livejournal.com]

ooops...sorry.

Sometimes I forget my LJ is friends-locked.