Western Illinois University laid off all nine of its faculty librarians, effective one year ago. But an arbitrator has now ruled the administration violated a collective bargaining agreement when it let go of those workers and two other bargaining unit professionals.
"We have maintained from the very beginning that the institution had violated the contract," said John Miller, President of University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100, which represents the workers.
He said the administration made a "bad decision" that harmed students, faculty, and the community.
The arbitrator's order entitles the employees to back pay and requires the university to reinstate the workers, if they wish to return to their positions.
"We're happy to see them being brought back, even if it did take us a year to get them back," Miller said.
Miller said the case is an illustration of the mistakes that can happen when the state fails to adequately fund higher education.
"You have an institution who's in a crisis mode, and they are looking for a solution to a problem in a crisis without thinking about the long-term implications and whether or not they can contractually do this," he said.
Story update with the administration's statement in response to the ruling:
"Western Illinois University continues to collaborate with UPI leadership to strengthen the university and its community. WIU continues to participate in the collaborative arbitration process and has no further comment on pending contractual and personnel matters."
The faculty librarians received layoff notices in 2024 as the WIU administration worked to close a multi-million-dollar budget gap. More than 100 people from across campus received layoff notices that summer.
The layoffs for the library faculty took effect in mid-May 2025.
During their final year on the job, the librarians created a series of short YouTube videos called Library Magic to explain their role in the institution.
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