Last week, CML United initiated the unionization process when it delivered signed union cards representing a supermajority of eligible library workers to Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board, taking the biggest step yet in a slow-building process that started more than 18 months ago.
Workers at one of Ohio’s largest library systems set to unionize – Ohio Capital Journal
Workers at one of Ohio’s largest library systems set to unionize
Employees seek better health care benefits and pay amid an increased demand for library services
By: Susan Tebben – November 18, 2025 4:55 am
A sign in front of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. (Ohio Capital journal file photo.)Workers from one of the biggest library systems in Ohio are establishing a labor union focused on improvements they say need to happen 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.
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