Employees at the Okanagan Regional Library (ORL) in Kaleden and Oliver have voted in favour of joining the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Staff at the two branches will join CUPE 1123 which currently represents 17 ORL branches in the Okanagan.

CUPE 1123 President Rose Jurkic says that employees at the two branches felt it was the right time to join the union.

"Our last round of negotiations was very difficult, but employees at all ORL branches, unionized or not, saw that CUPE 1123 was committed to representing library workers in a fair and equitable manner," says Jurkic.

"We welcome our newest members to our local and look forward to continuing to provide quality public services at all our branches."

With the addition of these two locations CUPE now represents over 170 workers at 19 of the 29 Okanagan branches.

Anita Sthankiya -Penticton