50,000 Workers Strong! AFSCME Cultural Workers United hits 5-year milestone

AFSCME Cultural Workers United hit a milestone this year. 50,000 workers at museums, libraries, zoos and other cultural institutions across the nation have won a voice on the job by forming a union with AFSCME — more than any other union.  

Cultural workers have a long history of winning by organizing with AFSCME. Workers at America’s library — the Library of Congress — formed a union through AFSCME District Council 20 in 1976.  

But five years ago, as COVID-19 ravaged the world, cultural workers increasingly recognized the need to build power at work. The pandemic shone a light on long-simmering workplace issues and ignited an urgency among cultural workers to demand job security and a safe workplace. 

That’s when AFSCME launched the nationwide campaign AFSCME Cultural Workers United (CWU). 

From coast to coast, cultural workers began joining together to address issues that had long plagued anyone trying to build a career in the cultural field. Dismal wages that were often viewed as concessions for working at prestigious institutions. Lack of accountability and transparency from management. And an overall exclusion of workers’ voices in setting workplace policies.

In recent years, thousands of cultural workers have formed new unions with AFSCME in big cities, small towns, and rural areas all over the country, from New York to California.

And nowhere is the boom in cultural worker organizing more noticeable than in Illinois. 

In just a few short years, thousands of cultural workers throughout the state have formed their unions with AFSCME Council 31. Workers at famed institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Shedd Aquarium, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Chicago History Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Library workers have been particularly energized to join the CWU wave. Employees at Chicago’s Newberry Library, Urbana Free Library, Mississippi Valley Public Library, Niles-Maine District Library, and more, have all formed their unions with AFSCME in recent years.

Many of these new unions have since ratified their first union contracts, which include gains such as significant wage increases, unprecedented contract and longevity bonuses, compensation for bilingual employees, improved job advancement and training opportunities, paid parental leave, and benefits that also cover part-time employees. 

And even as the cultural sector faces relentless attacks from the current administration, AFSCME CWU is fighting back. That's why AFSCME filed a lawsuit with the American Library Association to stop the administration from shutting the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences and protect funding for our cultural institutions.