In March 2025, library workers in Charles County Public Library successfully unionized with UFCW 1994. After 14 months of negotiations, the library workers of Charles County Public Library finally reached a tentative agreement on their first contract despite the fact that, last year, CCPL’s Executive Director, Kennethwayne Thompson allocated $250,000 for union avoidance law firm, Jackson Lewis, which resulted in an unnecessarily hostile and dragged out contract fight. Significant library resources, not to mention taxpayer money, were wasted just to delay their employee’s contract as long as possible.

As described in a recent substack article by the staff bargaining team, Kennethwayne Thompson has not been present in bargaining sessions for the last 8 months and is working almost exclusively from home. Since June, he has used library funds to travel to Chicago and South Korea to attend conferences. After delaying his staff’s raises and attempting to withhold retroactive pay when the contract is finalized, he raised the maximum range of his salary by $30,249. How can an Executive Director who has shown minimal interest in overseeing library operations outside of harming his employees justify international work trips and a massive pay raise?

Charles County deserves a library that is committed to the communities they serve and spending their resources appropriately. The public deserves a library that understands how vital librarians are to their community and treats their employees with dignity and respect. If you agree, it’s time to let the library’s Board know how you feel.

By completing this form, you will send an email to the County Commissioners and whatever remains of CCPL’s Library Board urging them to:

• Fire Jackson Lewis from the library

• Take steps to address the low workplace morale caused by the library directors

• Fire Kennethwayne Thompson for gross fiscal misconduct and abuses of power