AFSCME, the nation’s largest union of cultural workers, is continuing the fight to stop the administration from closing the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.
AFSCME joined with cultural institutions this week in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a preliminary injunction won by state attorneys general blocking the dismantling of the IMLS.
The administration issued an executive order in March to decimate the IMLS.
The so-called amicus brief emphasized that the administration’s drastic cuts to IMLS staffing and programs undermine vital public services and threaten communities nationwide.
“We urge the court to continue to protect federal support for museums and libraries from anti-worker billionaires who are trying to rob our communities of the services we depend on,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders.
“Because of this support, AFSCME members at cultural institutions nationwide educate the next generation, help workers access job training and provide a safe space where anyone can learn,” he added. “We will continue to defend our communities from these attempts to deprive us of our history, our resources, and our freedom to learn.”
First created and funded by Congress in 1996, IMLS is the federal agency that provides essential coordination, research and funding for the nation’s libraries, museums, public gardens, aquariums, zoos and other cultural institutions.
AFSCME Cultural Workers United members work at many of the facilities that receive federal support from the IMLS, both in the way of grant funding and assistance from expert federal agency staff. AFSCME members’ work for those institutions is highlighted in the brief, including specifically at the District of Columbia Public Library, Science Museum of Minnesota, and Walker Art Center.
IMLS also generates critical industry data that AFSCME regularly relies on throughout the country to conduct collective bargaining for AFSCME members and secure fair and dignified wages and benefits.
The agency has had bipartisan support throughout its history and is especially important to smaller and rural institutions that rely on federal funding for a greater share of their budgets.
In May, a federal district court in Rhode Island issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the agency from shutting down. The amicus brief asks the First Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold that injunction.
AFSCME is involved in a separate case to protect the IMLS in partnership with the American Library Association (ALA), also one of the amicus parties on the brief filed this week.
To join AFSCME members who are fighting to protect the services that we provide, sign up at AFSCMEGo.org.