Posts tagged American Library Association
Columbus Metropolitan latest among central Ohio libraries to form union
July 9, 2026 // According to secret ballot election results released July 7 by Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board, 86% of valid ballots agreed to unionize. The new union includes about 600 librarians, customer service specialists, youth engagement specialists, materials services associates, drivers, sorters and other library workers. It does not include management or security staff. The vote count was 368-60, with roughly 428 employees casting mail-in ballots, according to the Ohio Federation of Teachers, which began organizing the library's union in 2024. The union also represents many of central Ohio's suburban public libraries, including Worthington, Grandview Heights, Pickerington, Upper Arlington and Delaware County. All six now have labor contracts.
Workers at more Chicago cultural venues are unionizing, even during a precarious moment for museums
December 12, 2025 // Still, the process of unionization may not be smooth at every site. At Chicago Botanic Garden, there’s a disagreement between workers and management with what steps should be required to establish a union. Employees who are advocating for better pay, health care and safety on the job and are represented by CMRJB Workers United say they are asking employees to sign union cards. However, Chicago Botanic Garden leadership opposes that approach in favor of a secret ballot election to vote on the union. “To skip that step would really be disenfranchising those eligible employees,” Chicago Botanic Garden President and CEO Jean Franczyk told the Chicago Sun-Times. “The process has multiple steps and options that you can pursue. But the one that we think protects individual eligible workers’ rights is that supervised election.”