ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — In less than two weeks time, Theresa Webster will be saying goodbye to a childhood dream job.
"This is a happy place. It was my happy place. [I] had always said I had wanted to work in a library, my mother reminded me, since I was 3," Webster said.
But it wasn't really by choice.
Shelver positions eliminated at Howard County libraries
A retired reading teacher, Webster became a library shelver at the Miller Branch about a year and a half ago. On Monday, she and 54 other on-call staff, who work 10 hours or less a week, were told their position would no longer be needed by phone.
"I was supposed to come in and work at the library. I had to take Monday off and then when I came in Tuesday, it was very emotional. The rest of the staff was just so supportive," Webster said.
“The library has always been a place where we are excited to come every single day. People come in with a smile. They’re thrilled to be here. Seeing this has just been devastating for morale," Megan Royden said.
Royden is the president of the Howard County Library Workers United, under AFSCME Local 6359. She also got her start as a shelver.
The union has been outspoken about the cuts, even though affected staff are not a part of it.
"These are the people we work with every single day," Royden said."Frankly, they are some of the most vital in keeping this library system running."
The library system blames finances and recently agreed-to cost of living salary increases for the reason behind the cuts.
"When the union demands pay raises higher than the national average while we face budget shortfalls, we need to make it work through other means, including painful cuts like this one," Christie Lassen said.
director of communications and external affairs for the Howard County Library System.
Lassen is the director of communications and external affairs for the Howard County Library System.
She notes that these are not layoffs but rather the position is being "phased out".
The move is expected to save $286,000 in Fiscal Year 2027.
HCLWU formed about two and a half years ago and agreed on a contract last May.
Though the library system maintained with only a 3% budget increase from the county, they could not meet the union's ask for a 7% salary increase. Arbitration was ongoing until recently until the parties settled on 6%, as shared in a public release last Friday.
That increase is anticipated to been a part of paychecks beginning Friday, March 6.
"Salaries account for about 80% of our operating costs, so we had to address this gap in some way," Lassen said.
At no point, Royden said, was the union made aware that it could lead to the elimination of as many as 55 positions.
"Every single step of the way [library leaders] have proven to be anti-worker as they possibly could be," Royden said.
She also argues the system extended the same 6% percent increase to higher paid non-union management and supervisors.
"You're comparing people in our unit who make $30,000-$40,000 dollars a year to someone who's maybe making a quarter million," she said.
Union members and affected staff plan to rally at the East Columbia branch this Saturday, outside of the library's annual "Evening in the Stacks" gala fundraiser.
In the meantime, the concern is how the libraries will operate in shelvers' absence.
“We can do it fast. It takes about an hour an average of an hour to do a cart. Sometimes we come in and there’s 20 carts back there," Webster said. "I don’t know how they make it look easy but they are very busy people. I don’t know how they’re going to add anything more to their plate."
“Service desks might not be manned as much. We might not have as many classes for the community to come in... it’s going to be a significant departure from everyone’s experience right now," Royden said.
