Employees of the American Library Association have announced plans to form the ALA Workers United (ALAWU), working with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 in Illinois.

When ALA staff arrived for work at the association’s main Chicago headquarters on March 2, they were greeted by fellow workers who shared an open letter urging support for the ALAWU and handed out buttons with the union logo.

“Colleagues on the ALAWU organizing committee were outside of the building at 7:00, as their coworkers started coming in,” AFSCME Council 31 director of public affairs Anders Lindall told PW. “At the same time, the union organizing committee sent an email to all employees, so that they got word first. At noon, we went to the news media and onto all of the social platforms, to share the good news publicly at midday.”

Council 31 represents approximately 3,000 Illinois library workers in Chicago and its suburbs, major Illinois cities, and state universities. Nationwide, AFSCME represents more than 35,000 library workers.

The open letter, signed by 40 ALA workers, states that “recent multi-round layoffs, increased workloads, benefit reductions, financial crises, ingrained salary disparities, and lack of transparent decision-making have motivated us to come together in our union.” Their list of concerns refers to the streamlining goals in the ALA strategic plan released last summer and the association’s acknowledgement of workforce reductions in October 2025. Some 30 employees left the association last year, through buyouts and layoffs.

“Despite these many challenges, we still believe ALA is an inspiring place to work and we want to see it succeed,” the organizers wrote in their letter. They emphasized that they seek “a sustainable future” for the association, which will celebrate 150 years at its annual June convention.

ALA executive director Dan Montgomery, who came to ALA in November 2025 after serving five consecutive terms as president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers union, responded in a statement that "ALA’s mission has always been rooted in the belief that people deserve a voice in their communities, in their institutions, and in the decisions that affect their lives. That belief extends to our own workplace. We respect our employees' legal right to organize and will engage in this process thoughtfully and in good faith."

Montgomery wrote that "our shared focus continues to be advancing the ALA’s mission of supporting libraries, defending intellectual freedom, and serving our members, while ensuring long-term organizational stability."

Next Steps for ALAWU

Librarian and archivist Colleen Barbus, a 20-year ALA employee, spoke with PW on behalf of the nascent ALA Workers United. “ALA staff started conversations with Council 31 last year, and it's been ongoing since then,” Barbus said.

“We very much believe in the mission of this organization and the potential that it has moving forward,” she continued. “But we want to make sure that all employees are protected as part of that mission and that new strategic plan.”

Barbus spoke about the difficulty of losing colleagues to workforce reduction, “not just your day-to-day interactions with them, your friendship with them, but also their institutional knowledge, their connections with our membership.” Workers began to fear they were devoting themselves to ALA’s mission “at the cost of our own day-to-day existence,” she said.

She also noted that “we have 100 members that are eligible for our bargaining unit,” and a supermajority of signatures is required to move forward to ensure ALAWU support. Once eligible members sign union cards, the organizing committee can ask ALA leadership for voluntary recognition of the union, which the National Labor Relations Board would certify before a collective bargaining committee could form.

“We would hope for that process to take probably a matter of weeks, not months,” AFSCME’s Lindall said.

The union effort is a “milestone” in ALA’s 150 years, according to Barbus. “Not to sound too grandiose, but this has never happened before in the history of the organization,” she exclaimed. “This has been months of planning amongst ourselves, and we’re excited to spread the word to our colleagues.”