Last week, Payday Report covered the film "The Librarians," an emotionally moving story of the intimidation, firings, and threats of physical violence faced by many librarians, particularly in the South. The threats librarians face have led many to embrace organized labor protection.

Our friends at the Ohio Capital-Journal have a great piece looking at the union drive of nearly 700 librarians in Ohio.

Workers at one of Ohio’s largest library systems set to unionize

By Susan Tebben

Workers from one of the largest library systems in Ohio are establishing a labor union focused on improvements they say are needed in areas such as wages and paid time off.

Employees with the Columbus Metropolitan Library have been working to form a union for the better part of a year, according to members participating in the effort, and planning to unionize with the Ohio Federation of Teachers.

For Jude Virostko, an adult services librarian at the library system’s South High branch, growing up in Coshocton meant being a “library kid,” something that fed into her thirst for knowledge and desire to be a librarian.

“I was at my library every chance I got,” Virostko said. “It was a place where I felt safe when that wasn’t necessarily the case in other places.”

She “wanted to be that safe space” after she moved to Columbus and has been in libraries every since.

“Libraries are an essential part of a functioning democracy,” Virostko said, as they face funding challenges on the state and federal level.

But being a librarian has “become a little bit more dangerous,” according to Megan Sheeran, a librarian at the Columbus library’s main location in downtown Columbus.

She has watched as the library has become a place for all people to come and feel welcomed, but also a place where staff are asked to do more than ever before.

“Some have been threatened and assaulted,” Sheehan said. “People are honestly having a really tough time and we’re on the frontlines being asked to help with that.”

About 630 workers are a part of the union’s bargaining unit, and the organizing committee has talked with more than half of union-eligible Columbus Metropolitan Library employees, with about 80% supportive of the efforts.

Management within the library system have been made aware of the unionizing effort, according to Ohio Federation of Teachers president Melissa Cropper.

The union would include Columbus Metropolitan Library workers with the exception of management, security staff, and certain administrative staff, as dictated by Ohio union laws.

The process to officially file with the State Employment Relations Board hasn’t happened yet, because the Ohio Federation of Teachers wants to make every effort to get to eligible employees.

“We are very adamant that we want conversations to be worker to worker,” Cropper told the Capital Journal. “We have enough support to file, but it’s that wanting to talk to every worker on the ground.”

Both Sheeran and Virostko embrace their work in helping connect Ohioans with the resources they need, but think the labor union is needed to demand their employer not ask too much of them, pushing employees to be the resources themselves.

“Frontline staff are being pushed to act as untrained social workers,” Virostko said. “The social safety net is diminishing, and we’re being pushed on that.”

In an official statement from the union organizers, the group says their “direct, daily experience” with library patrons means they “deserve a voice in the policies that affect us.”

“We’re forming our union to make sure every (Columbus Metropolitan Library) worker, part-time and full-time, is paid fairly and receives vital benefits, like affordable health care and paid time off,” the statement reads.

At the center of the effort is the passion the workers have for their libraries, their profession and their patrons, the statement continues.

“Core values that our library depends on, like intellectual freedom, diversity, equity and inclusion are facing dire threats,” according to the organizers.

“We need to use our collective voice to defend the freedom to read, the freedom to think and the freedom to be yourself.”

For Rahaf Fares, a customer service specialist at the Martin Luther King Jr. branch, the power of the library and the importance it serves for the community is why fighting for a union is vital.

“I feel like library communities are a reflection of statewide issues that the greater community is experiencing,” Fares said.

“If Columbus is experiencing issues with housing and people struggling to find jobs and access to food, they need help connecting to things that might help, and we’re needed even more.”

Luke Avnaim, who sorts and delivers books from the Columbus library system’s operations center in Gahanna, has watched the workload get heavier for him as well, with new drivers being trained and a new route already instituted since he started working there.

With the growing need the workers see at the library, planning a more supportive system for employees with wage, health care and paid time off improvements can only help, and having a union to help see it through is important, Avnaim said.

“We could plan a little bit more for our future,” Avnaim said. “We need all we can get.”

A spokesperson for Columbus Metropolitan Library told the Capital Journal it has not heard from staff members about any efforts to unionize.

He offered no further comment.

The Columbus Metropolitan Library unionization would add it to a list of library workers who have started labor unions.

This includes workers from Worthington, Grandview Heights, Pickerington, Upper Arlington, Athens County and Delaware County.

Worthington and Grandview Heights workers ratified their first union contracts in 2023.

Pickerington’s union contract was ratified in March of this year.

Upper Arlington, Athens County, and Delaware County are all still in contract negotiations, according to the Ohio Federation of Teachers.