Eligible American Library Association employees are voting this month on the future of a union, ALA Workers United. The election began in Chicago on April 24, when workers at the main headquarters voted in person. Employees who work in ALA’s Washington, D.C., and Connecticut offices are casting their ballots by mail, and all votes will be counted May 27. A simple majority of the approximately 100 union-eligible workers will be needed for certification by the National Labor Relations Board.
“We had a lot of good energy” and a “strong turnout” on the election day in Chicago, said Gena Parsons-Diamond, an eight-year employee of ALA who serves as program manager for data and research with the Association of College and Research Libraries. “We had almost 70% of eligible employees sign cards before the election, so there’s strong support across the organization for organizing.”
“Our election day was such a joyous and hopeful experience for all the eligible people, and we hope to carry that energy forward into the negotiations and contract bargaining,” Parsons-Diamond added.
Plans to establish ALAWU with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 were announced in March. That same month, ALA executive director Dan Montgomery issued a statement saying, “We respect our employees’ legal right to organize and will engage in this process thoughtfully and in good faith.” According to AFSCME, ALA management declined to voluntarily recognize the union at the outset, triggering the election and NLRB process.
“The organizing committee sought recognition in a letter, and the [management] response was that they had to wait for their board meeting,” which took place on the same day as the in-person election, explained Anders Lindall, director of public affairs for AFSCME Council 31. Lindall feels that the election is “duplicative” and “an expense in terms of time and money, because a vast majority of workers have already shown by signing union cards that they want representation.”
An ALA spokesperson told PW that the association “will have an update following the election results on May 27.”
That date is only a month removed from the ALA Annual conference and sesquicentennial, to be held June 25–29 in Chicago. At the show, “staff are scattered around, doing a million different things to keep the conference running smoothly,” said Parsons-Diamond. “I’m excited to show solidarity with my co-workers” by wearing her ALAWU shirt or pin.
“Whether I’m at the ALA Annual or the Association for Rural and Small Libraries conference every year, I’m boothing or running sessions and speaking with librarians all day long,” said Kaileen McGourty, a program officer with the ALA Public Programs office. “I plan to be doing that, wearing my union pin, and wearing my union shirt, and that’ll probably be part of my conversations.”
McGourty reflected that, since going public with ALAWU, her office responsibilities and benefits have stayed the same, and she looks forward to collective bargaining.
“What has improved,” she said, is “my own morale.” She’s been with ALA for four and a half years, and during that time, she only knew her eight-member team well. Now that she’s involved with ALAWU, “I know so many more of my coworkers, and I know them beyond just Teams messages—I know them personally."
Connections have been "the best part so far" of organizing, she concluded. "[We are] showing that this union is making ALA stronger and better, and that's the way that we're going to continue for another 150 years."
