Developing the collective power of library workers

CHICAGO — Interest in unions and the real, day-to-day benefits they secure for employees is on the rise—including among library workers, who are beginning to realize that on their own they have little leverage. But with a union they have the power of numbers, and their working conditions are decided by a collectively negotiated agreement based on their own assessments and priorities. “Organize Your Library! Developing the Collective Power of Library Workers,” published by ALA Neal-Schuman as the newest volume in the Critical Cultural Information Studies series, will equip readers with the knowledge, skills, and strategies necessary for organizing and maintaining a union at their library. Angelo Moreno, Kelly McElroy, Meredith Kahn, and Emily Drabinski pepper the text with illuminating stories from successful library union leaders and members. This handbook:

• discusses why library workers need unions and explores some of the benefits that a collective bargaining agreement can assure, such as job security, increased salaries, codification of the rules for overtime pay and time off, and protection from harassment by patrons;
• explains why a contract won't limit employees' autonomy;
• walks readers through how to launch a union drive, including the basics of talking with co-workers, combating apathy and fear, and running a campaign;
• offers an overview of the steps involved in building a new union, from forming an organizing committee to getting recognition and setting up a governance structure;
• sketches out the key issues relating to contracts, the details of bargaining and negotiation, and arbitration;
• lays out approaches and strategies for dealing with supervisors and administrators in the context of your union work, including effective communication between labor and management, contract enforcement, and handling bad behavior such as unfair labor practices and retaliation;
• gives advice on pursuing changes in your workplace in a right-to-work state;
• explores the constructive roles that bosses can play to support the union efforts of the workers who organize them; and
• provides an Action Plan at the end of each chapter with suggested readings, questions for reflection, and activities designed to help deepen your knowledge, broaden your network, and practice important skills.

Moreno is an organizer for AFSCME Council 31 in Chicago, Illinois. He started his career in libraries in the summer of 2012 as a page at his childhood library. In 2020 he and his coworkers organized a union at the East Lansing Public Library in Michigan and successfully won wage increases and increased job protections for predominantly part-time, low-wage, precarious staff. He has served as a union chair and a bargaining committee member. McElroy has worked in public and academic libraries since she was in high school. She is currently an outreach librarian and associate professor at Oregon State University (OSU), where she also helped organize the faculty union, United Academics OSU. As a unionist, she has served on the bargaining team for multiple rounds of bargaining, including as lead negotiator and executive vice president. Kahn began working in libraries as a first-year college student, and today they are a librarian at the University of Michigan and an elected leader in a union of librarians, archivists, and curators. They were a founding member of their union’s organizing committee and a member of the bargaining team for their union’s first contract. Drabinski is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College. She served in multiple union roles including as a member of the executive committee, secretary, and president of the Long Island University Faculty Federation. In 2016, she was locked out by her employer in the first lockout in the history of US higher education. Drabinski was president of the American Library Association in 2023–2024.

ALA Neal-Schuman’s Critical Cultural Information Studies series is edited by Dr. Nicole A. Cooke, Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and Associate Professor at The School of Information Science, University of South Carolina.

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