The unions denounce that the National Library lacks a protocol to resolve emergencies such as floods

The unions CC.OO., UGT and CSIF demanded this Thursday the dismissal of the management team of the National Library – director, technical director and manager -, with Oscar Arroyo at the head, for what they consider to be “inaction” in the face of events such as the one that occurred on the 16th, when the rains flooded the 12th floor of the building and affected dozens of specimens. The BNE, the three unions denounced in a joint statement, lacks a plan to protect bibliographic heritage in case of emergencies. This means that the workers at Spain’s main library had to improvise on the day of the leaks to move a total of 5,000 copies, without training and without protective equipment, to save them from the water. To this we must add that, eight days later, the BNE still has not contacted the prevention service to address these deficiencies.

«Since Wednesday [el día de las inundaciones] At no time has the external prevention service CESA been contacted to make a report on the floods. As this report has not been made, the prevention delegates have not been informed so that they can make the technical visit. The first intervention teams were also not informed so that they could go out as soon as possible to take measures so that the books did not suffer the damage they suffered,” he denounces. Emilio Murciaresponsible for Prevention and Occupational Health at CC.OO. and head of the union at the BNE. “In addition, the National Library has been without a head of the Maintenance and Service Area for four years.”

Jesus Rodriguezfrom UGT, adds that all the transport of the 5,000 copies was done by public employees with their own umbrellas and little else: “Public employees did it without being trained for it or with the appropriate equipment.” If there had been an implemented protocol and specific equipment, he adds, “we would have acted from 7 in the morning instead of 9, an emergency coordinator would have attended, who would probably have been a restaurateur, and everything would have been endorsed by the emergency service.” prevention. It is quite striking that a place like the National Library, with its cultural heritage, does not have such a plan and its workers are not trained. And if on top of that we have to improvise, bad business.