After months of stalled wage negotiations, library workers demanded contract provisions that guarantee fair and comparable wages.
Elkridge – On Wednesday, November 20, Howard County library workers addressed the library system’s Board of Trustees and called for an end to a months-long deadlock in wage negotiations. Howard County Library Workers United, AFSCME, the library workers’ union, had a strong, unified presence at the meeting, and a union member, Charles Smalls, offered testimony.
Howard County Library Workers United became the officially recognized union for library workers after an election in February of this year, and workers began to negotiate their first union contract in May. Since then, library workers and administration have held eleven bargaining sessions, but the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that library workers will receive in fiscal year 2025 has been a consistent point of tension. Currently, library administration has offered a 2% COLA, which was the planned increase prior to unionization of workers. A 2% increase is well below the COLAs that other Howard County public sector workers are set to receive: Howard County government employees will receive between 5-7%, employees of the Howard County Sheriff’s Department will receive 9% this fiscal year, and Howard County Public Schools workers, who initially faced threats of layoffs at the beginning of this fiscal year, will receive 3.5%.
Library workers across the country face mounting challenges, and amidst these increasingly difficult working conditions, library workers often provide social services and support alongside library services. Howard County Library Workers United takes deep pride in the exceptional customer service they deliver, and they deserve compensation that both recognizes their essential work and is on par with their Howard County union siblings and their library siblings across Maryland.
Howard County library workers are part of a national movement of workers that have unionized with AFSCME Maryland in recent years as part of AFSCME’s Cultural Workers United program, including workers at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Anne Arundel County Public Library, Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Walters Art Museum.
“Our peers working the same jobs elsewhere in central Maryland, Anne Arundel, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties, are all being paid a higher wage for the same responsibilities. This is unacceptable in a county that is consistently ranked as one the richest counties in the nation. I speak on behalf of my union siblings when I say that we love working inside of this community, but it is sickening that so many of my peers cannot afford to live where we work,” said Charles Smalls, an Instructor and Research Specialist who testified at Wednesday’s Board of Trustees meeting.
“We are passionate and driven to negotiate a fair contract that creates a strong foundation for our union and future contract negotiations. We want to continue to provide exceptional customer service to our community, and at the same time, we want and frankly deserve respect and fair compensation for those efforts,” said Megan Royden, an Instructor and Research Specialist.
“We fully support the efforts of Howard County Library Workers United as they fight for fair and equitable wage increases. In a time when so many workers are struggling to make ends meet, it is unacceptable for one of the richest counties in one of the richest states to deny public service workers their fair share. It’s time for the Board of Trustees to take action and stop denying workers what they rightfully deserve,” said Patrick Moran, AFSCME Maryland Council 3 President.
###
About AFSCME Maryland Council 3
AFSCME Maryland Council 3 represents nearly 45,000 public service workers in local, city, county and state government as well as in higher education who provide the valuable public services that our communities rely on. From Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore, we make Maryland happen.
