Employees of the Niles-Maine District Library have voted to unionize following the election of new board members and concerns about proposed cuts to the library’s budget.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) announced Monday that nearly 100 librarians, support staff and other employees of the library will be part of the union and that a petition was filed last week with the Illinois Labor Relations Board.
The statement from AFSCME said the employees made the decision to unionize “in the wake of cuts to library funding, staff and programs threatened by newly elected members of the library board.”
The statement also references the board’s hiring of a political supporter of several of the board members, who made a campaign video for them through his production company.
“The staff at the Niles-Maine District Library has spent decades working with different board leadership to maintain a valuable community space and resource, but within just a few weeks, this new board majority has made it obvious that they do not understand the functions of a public library and have no interest in learning them,” Teen Services Librarian Rachel Colias said in the statement from AFSCME. “The people who work here have invested too much in this library to be so easily dismissed, and we hope to work as a union to protect our ability to serve anyone who relies on us.”
Anders Lindall, spokesman for AFSCME, said more than 70% of the library’s nearly 100 employees expressed a desire for union representation. The employees first reached out to AFSCME in mid-April, he said.
The Library Board and management of the library will have an opportunity to respond to their request to unionize, Lindall said.
“We’re urging the board to recognize the will of the employees to form a union and have a voice, as is their right,” he said.
Library Board President Carolyn Drblik did not immediately respond to phone and email messages.
The library board is currently considering the library’s budget for 2021-22 and spending cuts have been proposed by some board members.
A letter of support for library employees was also signed by several local leaders including Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, State Senators Robert Martwick and Ram Villavalam, and State Representatives Marty Moylan and Lindsey LaPointe.
In April, voters elected new trustees Olivia Hanusiak, Suzanne Schoenfeldt and Joe Makula to the library board. In May, shortly after the new board members were seated, they, with Board President Drblik, voted to raise health insurance premiums for library employees; freeze purchases, including books; change the appointment process of new library hires so that the board will now vote on any new employees brought forward by the director; suspend all capital projects and “special reserve purchases” for an undisclosed amount of time; and change language to the library trustee manual, including the addition of statements that the library board will “have the exclusive control of the expenditures of all moneys (sic).”
The board also voted to hire former Niles mayoral candidate Steven Yasell’s video production company Yissilmissil Productions to “evaluate, assess and inventory” library equipment, systems and operations. The amount paid will be $100 per hour.
In an April 1 Facebook post, Yasell endorsed Makula, Hanusiak and Schoenfeldt for election to the library board and his production company’s YouTube channel includes a campaign video featuring Hanusiak.
Each measure was met with strong opposition from Trustees Becky Keane-Adams, Dianne Olson and Patti Rozanski, who voted against all of them.