Guild Members All,
Once again, we’ve traversed a full year of the COVID-19 pandemic to reach another holiday season.
Kindness is the foundation of the holiday spirit, and it is also a foundation of the true practice of solidarity: working to better the lives of those around us. Generosity, too, extends not just to helping others in materials ways, but working with an open mind and heart to understand their needs and viewpoints. Self care has taken on new urgency as these stressful and challenging times continue. Through self care, we build the resilience we need to support ourselves, our families, and our communities.
“Kindness Not Cancelled,” by Lisa Saldivar. [Seattle]: Amplifier, 2020.
This holiday season, the Guild reflects on how we have supported each other throughout the year, and especially how many have shown kindness and generosity toward our individual brothers and sisters adversely impacted by the pandemic. Thank you for this. We have also shown our collective support through another successful holiday campaign to raise funds for the laid off Library of Congress cafeteria workers—our union to their union—and hope to see them back at work soon. In our 2021 campaign, we raised $16,337.75 for LC’s UNITE HERE Local 23 food service workers!
Coping with the pandemic has brought losses as well as some hard lessons. In this moment of reflection, however, we choose to reflect on how some pandemic lessons have actually led us to a better place. At the Library, there is now more focus on work-life balance, and on better working conditions surrounding health and safety, as well as on expanded workplace flexibility.
“Collective Care is the Future,” by Angela Faz. [Seattle]: Amplifier, 2020.
Lessons learned from the pandemic have led management and the Guild to negotiate a new, more flexible telework policy, recently set in place for when the pandemic ends. It was the Guild that first brought telework to the Library more than a decade ago. This new telework policy has allowed us to successfully, and concretely, build on the Guild’s commitment to better working conditions and work-life balance for all staff.
On another important subject, the Guild has participated in (and sometimes led or catalyzed) formal conversations about workforce diversity and inclusion at the Library. Recently, we have especially had to explain the importance of inclusion once there is diversity—both of which the Library still struggles with. An inclusivity of spirit is most effective when it also results in improvements to material conditions for individuals, the institution, and the larger society we live in. We look forward to progress on this front.
“Physical Distancing is Social Solidarity,” by Shyama Kuver. [Seattle]: Amplifier, 2020.
Last but far from least, we have been strengthened by the many new members who have joined us in the past year, many of them new staff at the Library. We welcome our new colleagues to the Guild, alongside our many colleagues who have been members for several or dozens of years. As we all join forces around significant issues—as well as the ongoing work of sustaining our community—the Guild officers thank each of you, our Guild members, for your active participation and support.
We invite you to join us in a renewed commitment to this community of Library colleagues that is also a worker’s collective and a recognized union. With your commitment, we will continue to be a voice for all of us at the Library in the coming year.
The Guild wishes you a wonderful holiday season and all the best for 2022.
With solidarity,
Anne Toohey
Guild President
David Fernandez Barrial
Guild Chief Steward
Images accompanying this message are taken from the Library’s website, from a larger set of COVID-19 themed posters acquired by Prints & Photographs and published on paper and online with a Creative Commons license by Amplifier in 2020.
