By tradition, each Winter the Guild organizes a community service project, timed to coincide with the giving spirit of the holiday season. In recent years, projects have included collection drives of books or supplies, selected to benefit the missions of DC-area community organizations. Our 2020 project took an unexpected turn.
Early November, 2020
When the COVID-19 pandemic first upended the work for so many in March, 2020, few of us imagined that the Library of Congress’s food service workers (employed by LC contractor IL Creations) would still be laid off and facing economic hardship six months later. But suddenly there we were, with the holidays approaching.
Executive Board Member-at-Large for Membership Jackie Coleburn and former Guild President (now retired) Saul Schniderman proposed we focus our annual community service project even closer to home than usual, working to raising funds for the Library’s food service workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 23. The Executive Board quickly agreed, resolving that we give a portion of our holiday luncheon budget to launch the effort, while offering the rest as matching funds to encourage donations. We embarked on this campaign with high hopes, but on short notice just before the Thanksgiving holiday. Knowing how generous our members are, we expected to raise a few thousand dollars for our colleagues.
November through early December, 2020
Right before Thanksgiving on November 23, the Guild launched its fundraising campaign for LC’s food service workers with a blog post and email to our bargaining unit members. Donations were made through a website managed by UNITE HERE Local 23. To our joyful surprise, word of the campaign spread quickly, and the Guild’s matching funds were quickly exhausted as total contributions continued to rise. Organizers from both unions watched with astonishment as the fundraising took on a life of its own. By the time the campaign closed on December 9, we learned that $62,071 had been raised! That meant that each of the 29 food service workers at the Library was set to receive a gift card worth $2,100!
Jesse Seitel, Lead Organizer, UNITE HERE Local 23, shared these words when he announced the total sum to us:
I am completely blown away by how much you were able to raise and cannot overstate how much this means to workers. Without a new stimulus deal, our workers are mostly living on $300 per week and so $2,100 will be the difference in being able to afford food, rent, and other essentials for survival.… Thank you very much for your solidarity and support!
Or, as Jackie Coleburn stated it in our message to members soon after, “The over-the-top generosity of Library of Congress staff is on full display today.” We were awestruck.
Late December, 2020
It was chilly and breezy in front of the Madison Building on December 23, 2020, but the gratitude, good will, and holiday spirit generated by the Library’s food service workers—all members of UNITE HERE Local 23—warmed the day.
Willie Price, steward for Unite Here staff at the Library of Congress, called together all twenty-nine of the employees she represents to distribute $62,000 worth of gift cards among them. Each of the twenty-nine received a card worth $2,100 raised by the Library of Congress community—surely a welcome amount for a group of furloughed workers at the close of a difficult pandemic year.
This COVID-appropriate outdoor gift card distribution was the final piece of the fundraising effort lead by the Guild, AFSCME Local 2910, to help the Library’s food service staff laid off since the beginning of the pandemic in March, 2020. The Guild’s request for donations to UNITE HERE’s fund for its members at LC spread across the Library, and included the Employees’ Union, AFSCME Local 2477; CREA, IFPTE Local 75; and Library employees at all levels including managers, as well retirees. The generosity of Library staff and friends was stunning, and the financial assistance was received with an abundance of gratitude.
Jackie Coleburn (AFSCME 2910) and Willie Price (UNITE HERE 23) on December 23, 2020
Jackie Coleburn, Guild Executive Board Member-at-Large for Membership who helped organize the fund drive, read off the names of each recipient as UNITE HERE Shop Steward Willie Price handed out the cards to each employee. In turn, the members of UNITE HERE presented Jackie with roses. Saul Schniderman, past President of the Guild, along with Willie Price, lead the group in singing a version of “We wish you a Happy Holiday” that includes this particularly appropriate verse:
We thank one and all
For support that you bring
Through the halls of the Library
Solidarity rings!
The whole initiative was a beautiful example of workplace solidarity, demonstrating the bonds shared by all Library of Congress employees.
Coda: November 2021
Unbelievably, the pandemic continues and, with telework still prevailing, only a few of the Library’s food service workers are yet back on the job. The Guild will reprise its fundraising campaign, again in collaboration with UNITE HERE Local 23.