American Library Association (ALA) employees voted overwhelmingly to approve the formation of ALA Workers United (ALAWU), a new union representing staff at the 150-year-old association.
The final vote count, tallied on May 27, was 77–4, with 81 out of 87 votes counted. (Six votes were challenged.) The National Labor Relations Board will now certify the union, a process that may take approximately 10 days, allowing workers to begin collective bargaining.
“I’m so thrilled and honestly feeling really emotional,” says Ari Zickau, a program manager for consulting and professional development for ALA’s Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). “We’ve all worked really hard to solidify and strengthen our staff community here.”
ALA employees began voting April 24 after organizers sought to unionize with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 in Illinois earlier this spring. Of ALA’s 154 employees, 93 staff members were eligible to vote.
In a May 27 statement, AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said the results will give ALAWU “a strong voice to advocate for themselves and their families, for the libraries and library workers they serve nationwide, and for every American who counts on thriving public libraries as a bulwark of our democracy.”
The union effort followed months of internal reorganization at ALA, including workforce reductions, voluntary buyouts, and ongoing concerns about the organization’s finances. In a March open letter announcing the campaign, employees cited increased workloads, benefit reductions, salary disparities, low morale, and a lack of transparent decision-making as reasons for unionizing.
Last year, the Association announced a financial deficit of $15.4 million at the end of September. Staff reductions and attrition throughout 2025 resulted in dozens of departures and a workforce decline of roughly 16.7%.
ALA Executive Director Dan Montgomery, who joined ALA in November 2025 after decades in union leadership, said in a May 27 statement that ALA respects the outcome of the election and offered congratulations to employees on their successful efforts to organize.
“Moving forward, I believe our shared focus will remain on advancing ALA’s mission, serving our members, and fostering a workplace culture grounded in collaboration, mutual respect, and people-centered values,” he said. “Together, we will continue working to ensure the Association is well-positioned to live up to our mission: to support libraries, library workers, and the communities they serve for years to come.”
The next step for ALAWU will be to assemble a bargaining committee and negotiate its first contract with ALA senior leadership. Organizers say priorities include salary equity, parental leave, retirement benefits, and greater organizational transparency.
Says ACRL’s Zickau: “The fact that a landslide majority of the ALA bargaining unit all came together on this—some with decades of experience at ALA and some with a year or two—just shows how committed we all are to ALA’s future.”
