We welcome the 60 employees of the Urbana Free Library (UFL) in Illinois to the AFSCME family.
They voted unanimously to form their union, which was certified by the Illinois Labor Relations Board on Nov. 6. The UFL has been Urbana-Champaign’s public library since 1874.
Library employees were motivated to organize by a pattern of unfair and unequal treatment from management.
“We were all frustrated, trying to understand why the people who actually make this library run were being treated like dirt,” said Callie Ferencak, a library assistant and a member of the organizing committee.
Workers say decisions made by upper management were undermining the work that rank-and-file employees were doing every day.
“Our staff love the library. We care about that place. We care about our patrons,” said Carol Inskeep, a librarian who has worked for the library for 30 years. “That’s why it’s so disheartening when you see decisions get made that result in turnover, or demoralize us so much that we lose the most committed people. We know if we have a stronger voice, we’ll be able to make better decisions for our library and our patrons.”
Unbeknownst to each other, Ferencak and Inskeep had been having separate conversations with different groups of employees about unionizing. The two groups united, and began organizing their co-workers.
In early meetings, Ferencak and other members of the organizing committee educated co-workers in the way that library workers know best: by sharing reading lists of books on the importance and history of the labor movement, as well as statistics showing how unionized libraries can serve their communities better.
The library’s patrons were squarely on their side. At a Labor Day celebration in Champaign, UFL workers rode on AFSCME’s float while their patrons, watching from the sidewalk, cheered them on.
“Our patrons were shouting, ‘We love you,’” Ferencak said. “It was one of the most heartwarming things I’ve ever seen.”
Now that their union is officially certified, employees are looking forward to building the next phase — a chapter in which workers have a stronger voice in how their workplace serves their community and are treated with respect and paid fairly.
“The future looks bright for us,” Ferencak said.
More and more library workers are claiming a seat at the table — and they’re doing so with AFSCME. Across the nation, AFSCME represents 25,000 workers at 275 libraries through its Cultural Workers United campaign. Workers at a number of Illinois cultural institutions, especially in the Chicago area, have formed unions through AFSCME Council 31 in the past few years. Examples include the Newberry Library, Niles-Main District Library and Oak Lawn Public Library.