Back the NPLE’s fight for decency
For nearly 130 days, the workers of the Nashua Public Library have been working without a renewed contract. Negotiations are at an impasse, and yet their Board of Trustees continues to push forward with a massive $45 million building renovation. The residents of southern New Hampshire are left with a pertinent question: how do we define the value of our civic infrastructure?
This policy-over-people approach to community building calls to mind a growing pattern across our state, and our nation, of institutional goals being brazenly and unduly prioritized over the human labor and effort required to make those very goals a reality. The Nashua union is fighting for the most basic of labor protections — a wage increase on par with inflation, ensured job security during renovations — yet their higher ups refuse to hear them. This is all while siphoning tens of millions toward their new building blueprints.
This dispute represents a microcosm of a larger debate regarding the power of institutional money versus grassroots labor in shaping the policies which impact us daily. That is both here in New Hampshire and across the country. Even a $45 million building loses its civic soul if it is built by depriving those who foster the community inside of it of dignity and voice. In the Live Free or Die state, we should protest precedence being placed on flashy optics over the democratic treatment of working people in our communities.