Leadership
John Hyslop
Secretary, District Council 37
Secretary, District Council 37
He was hired by the Queens Library as an archivist for the Long Island Division, now known as the Archives at Queens Library.
Hyslop was immediately active in the union and became a DC 37 delegate in 1998. Hyslop rose quickly through the union ranks, becoming the librarian rep in 2000 and vice president for librarians in 2001. The following year, he was elected executive vice president, serving in that capacity until 2010, when he was elected president of Local 1321.
Under Hyslop’s leadership, Local 1321 scored a number of victories. The local successfully negotiated a new bargaining agreement, replacing an outdated contract from 1999. In 2014, it won back the jobs of library workers laid-off in 2010. The local also stopped library from contracting out security guards and custodians and organized non-union staff, eventually adding 100 new union members.
The local also played a key role in the firing of former Queens Library President and CEO Thomas Galante, whose lavish spending habits led to his ouster in December 2014.
“We must work to ensure that our members understand the power of the union,” Hyslop said.”Working together in solidarity is the only way to protect our rights—our wages and benefits. Knowing the history of DC 37 is important: the only reason why we have a 35-hour work week is because our predecessors formed the union. Struggling against higher powers, we fought for our health benefits and the preservation of our pension. We want to make sure that past is not forgotten.”
This year, John’s keen interest in preserving the history of the union movement culminated in the forming of the DC 37 Archives Committee, which has moved quickly to collect materials pertaining to DC 37’s storied history and interviews with key players in the growth of public worker unionism in the last 60 years.
