ALA Workers Move to Unionize

About 100 employees at the American Library Association (ALA) began voting on April 24 to form ALA Workers United (ALAWU), a new union at the 150-year-old association.

If a majority of the 101 eligible staff members out of 161 ALA employees vote to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will certify the new union. Votes will be counted May 27.

In a March 2 open letter, 40 staff members announced their plans to unionize with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 in Illinois. The letter cited several reasons for unionizing, including increased workloads, benefit reductions, financial crises, ingrained salary disparities, and a lack of transparent decision making.

On March 30, after organizers gathered majority support for the union via signed authorization cards from ALA employees, they asked for voluntary recognition of the union from the Association. According to AFSCME, ALA management declined recognition, which led to the NLRB vote.

“The work environment at ALA is difficult right now, and staff morale is low,” says librarian and archivist Colleen Barbus, who has been at ALA for 20 years and is on the ALAWU organizing committee. “We’ve had two rounds of workforce reductions, which have meant increased workloads for many of us, along with cuts to the programs and services we provide to ALA members.”

Changes at ALA

Last July, as part of its multiyear ALA Forward initiative, the Association launched a strategic plan designed, among other goals, to address its financial deficit, which stood at $15.4 million by the end of September. Also in July, several employees left ALA after staffers were offered voluntary buyouts, followed shortly afterward by workforce reductions, totaling 18 departures. Another 15 employees were affected by workforce reductions in October, heightening concerns among workers. (As of May 21, 2025, ALA had 198 employees. The three voluntary and involuntary reductions represented a 16.7% decline in the Association’s workforce.)

Last fall, ALA senior management also announced there would be no salary increases in 2026, and that a 3% match on employee contributions to retirement would be suspended (a non-match 4% contribution is still available).

“It felt like every all-staff meeting there was some new, distressing information or an uncomfortable decision was announced,” says Ari Zickau, a program manager for consulting and professional development for ALA’s Association of College and Research Libraries. “And there were very few channels for staff to ask questions or receive information in a way that felt like there was some mutual respect.”

Zickau joined ALA nearly two years ago and says he has since taken on a heavier workload following the workforce reductions. If approved, he wants the union to prioritize salary equity, transparency, a parental leave policy, and retirement benefits.

Other staff members echo Zickau’s desire for organizational transparency, including Em Gallaugher, program officer in ALA’s Public Programs Office. They say staff members care deeply about the ALA workplace and mission, and they want the Association to be a sustainable place to work.

“We aren’t interested in making the financial situation worse for ALA,” Gallaugher says, “but I think we deserve the transparency to know that we aren’t being sidelined.”

Addressing morale

In a March 3 statement following the union announcement, ALA Executive Director Dan Montgomery, who previously served as president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said management is committed to maintaining a workplace that supports staffers’ “professional growth, well-being, and contributions.”

Before joining ALA in November, Montgomery was actively involved in union leadership for over 30 years. He says he supports workers’ right to unionize and that his experience will make things easier going forward.

“Even if the union drive isn’t successful and they don’t elect to have a union,” he says, “we’re still going to work closely with all our employees in a way that we can do things together. You just need people on board to get things done. People should be happy in their workplace.”

When Montgomery arrived at the Association, he says it was apparent that staff morale was low. Although he hopes conditions have improved, especially with the launch of a staff advisory group, he realizes change takes time.

Amelia Newcomer Aldred, deputy director of state and local advocacy at ALA’s Public Policy and Advocacy Office, says that while advisory groups are important and useful, they do not have the same negotiating power as unions.

“At the end of the day, recommendations are just that; they’re recommendations,” Aldred says of the staff advisory group. “Equity at the negotiating table is a really important part of staff being able to have a voice.”

Former ALA President Emily Drabinski, who ran on a pro-labor platform, says she supports the union drive.

“My hope is that as this moves forward, people will see that unions are one way of organizing a workplace so that workers have a collective say in wages and working conditions and that it isn’t because the boss is bad,” Drabinski says. Instead, she says, it’s a way to help bring “democracy and equity into a workplace.”

National trends

Aliqae Geraci, a labor librarian and union researcher, says library workers at public, private, and university libraries nationwide have been increasingly unionizing in recent years. AFSCME’s Council 31, for instance, represents 3,000 library workers across Illinois, and 35,000 nationwide. According to February data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers in the education, training, and library sectors had the highest unionization rate (32.5%) of all surveyed professions in 2025.

Geraci believes the past five to 10 years have been volatile for nonprofit and public sector workers. Among the biggest concerns have been pay, benefits, and job security, as well as organizational culture, transparency, and fairness in basic policies and rules, especially as workplaces face economic instability and upheaval.

“Unionization can sometimes introduce a level of reliability into the equation, in that when we negotiate contracts, it then provides a road map for the subsequent years,” Geraci says.

If the majority of votes favor forming a union, the next step would be for the NLRB to certify the election results, after which ALAWU can assemble a collective bargaining committee.

“We see this as an opportunity for staff to engage at a higher, more productive level with ALA leadership on how we can solve this crisis together,” Zickau says. “We don’t want to run ALA into the ground; we want it to be around for hundreds of more years. I’m here because I believe in ALA’s work, because I love my work. I see the impact that it has every day on librarians everywhere.”