Indianapolis Library Union Moves Ahead

-- Library Journal, 8/28/2006

After months of resistance, the board of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library has agreed to recognize a library union if 75 percent of eligible library workers support it. The seven-member board voted unanimously; Board president Louis Mahern told the Indianapolis Star, "I have no objection to a union, but I was not going to bring it up for a vote until we had at least four (board) votes." However, the library has been facing fiscal straits, and board members were concerned that a union would raise salaries. "It was a definite victory in the sense that this is the first step they've taken to recognize us," Michael Torres, a library reference assistant and employee organizer, told the Star. "We have not had any dialogue for months." Employees earlier voted to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, expressing frustration with the loss of annual cost of living raises and other benefits.