Library Admins Are Using Public Money to Hire Union Busters Against Workers

On any given day in Howard County, Maryland, teenagers play Dungeons & Dragons, adults practice English conversation skills, and toddlers and their caregivers play together, all in clean and well-lit public libraries that are kept warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Anyone can walk in and use the space and its collections, and they do in great numbers.

In its latest annual report, the Howard County Library System documents more than 1.5 million visits across its seven locations, special collections unit, and a pop-up library. A quarter of a million students took classes at the library, and more than 7.5 million items were checked out and returned in 2024.

“All of us work here because we believe in the library and our community impact,” says Megan Royden, an Instructor and Research Specialist at the Howard County Library System and president of AFSCME Amalgamated Local 6359.

Royden and their coworkers are waiting on collectively bargained wage increases that included a 3 percent raise and 4 percent cost of living adjustment. When county leadership approved a smaller budget increase than requested, library administration reneged on the negotiated increases, asking for a contract re-opener in light of the smaller budget allocation. “They told us the county rejected our raises,” Royden told Truthout. “It was the library’s choice to make up the shortfall via our wages.”

The two parties are headed to arbitration on October 28. When management approved COLA raises for library staff on July 1, members of the bargaining unit were excluded and told that they would have to wait for the outcome of arbitration. Everyone else, including upper administration, got their COLA payments on time. “We have a lot of staff that count on that money,” Royden said. “Members couldn’t get their cars fixed, couldn’t pay bills.”

“We don’t want to be fighting for what we already agreed to,” Royden said.

In Anne Arundel County, library leadership signed a contract with Venable, a notorious management-side law firm.

Public library workers in Maryland are getting used to this kind of management hardball, including the use of public money to suppress the wages of public sector workers. Members of Pratt Workers United struggled for two years to bargain a first contract at the Baltimore institution. It took nearly two years to bargain a first contract at Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library. And in Anne Arundel County, library leadership announced they signed a contract with Venable, a notorious management-side law firm whose lobbying clients have included Lockheed Martin, Citadel, and American Airlines. Venable’s website boasts of their union-crushing record, including bargaining contracts with an orientation toward deadlock (bargaining “to impasse”) and working to overturn NLRB rulings favorable to labor.

“Nobody signs a contract with Venable because they want a smooth process,” Nicole Dvorak told Truthout. Dvorak helped organize the union at the Baltimore County Public Library and remains active in public sector union movements in the state. “It’s like they’re keeping a dirty secret behind the scenes.”

Employers are responding to a library labor movement that has been growing nationwide in response to a range of workplace issues including threats of organized censorship and the mismanagement of COVID closures from the perspective of many frontline workers.

After years of organizing across Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore signed the Library Workers Empowerment Act in 2024, setting out a standard process for library workers seeking to organize. Prior to its passage, library workers in the state did not have established collective bargaining rights, excluded from existing guidelines that covered public employees. (Library workers are employed by library systems, not directly by city or county governments.) LWEA secures the right to unionize, imposing restrictions on intimidation and retaliation, asserting rights to representation, and mandating timelines intended to prevent the kinds of lengthy processes that have marred negotiations at Howard County and elsewhere.

“After that bill pushed through, things were supposed to be easier,” Anita Bass, president of the Baltimore County Public Library union, told Truthout. “Library administrators still say no, and they’re still hiring union busting lawyers. You’d think the law would stop them, but it doesn’t.”

“I don’t believe the Board of Trustees or our community are fully aware of how hostile the response to unionizing has been.”

In Charles County, library administration contracted with the notorious union busting firm Jackson Lewis. “They work with Tesla, they work with Starbucks, so I don’t know what they’re doing working with public libraries,” said Christopher Lindstrom, a public service associate and organizer with the library union. “We’re like the guinea pigs — what happens if you throw a lot of money at a union fight after this bill has passed?”

For Royden and her colleagues in Howard County, the management crackdown hasn’t dampened enthusiasm for the union. “I’m sure it’s frustrating not to have total power and to have to consult with the union,” Royden told Truthout. “I wish we could get along rather than dragging it out. But everyone knows we need a union now.”

Part of the challenge is making the public understand that too. “I don’t believe the Board of Trustees or our community are fully aware of how hostile the response to unionizing has been,” Lindstrom said, citing the $250,000 that Charles County Library administrators have set aside for collective bargaining. “I don’t think they know that every dollar will be spent to delay negotiations as long as possible. I don’t think that’s what they want for the library and their library workers.”

Note: A correction has been made to clarify that library leadership in Anne Arundel County did not announce a cut to the collections budget at the same time they signed a contract with Venable.