Ten Art Handlers at the New York Public Library — fed up with low pay, nonexistent raises and no benefits — decided to join the union family.

On Oct. 15, in a National Labor Relations Board election, they voted overwhelmingly to be represented by DC 37.

Art Handler Shane Caffrey, 26, a leader of the organizing campaign, said the group “had no other option” but to unionize. “When you have nothing, anything is an improvement,” he said.

“We have all been working here a long time. We make this department run, yet we get nothing but an hourly wage,” said Mr. Caffrey, who hasn’t received a pay increase since the library hired him three years ago.

The Art Handlers in the library’s Design Dept. frame material, create labels, mount displays and install the lighting for scores of shows at the library every year. Currently, visitors can enjoy the fruits of their labor by visiting exhibits on Isaac Newton and Napoleon, the 18th century British illustrator James Gillray, and the cartoonist Charles Addams.

The Art Handlers are paid $14 an hour. “Compared to what other handlers make, it’s a joke,” Mr. Caffrey said. The same work at museums and galleries pays around $25 an hour.

Frustrated over the pay, unpaid vacations, the lack of health care coverage and pensions, the workers months ago began to discuss how they could improve their career prospects.

They met several times with union officials, including Local 1930 President Ray Markey, Local 374 President Cuthbert Dickenson, Assistant Director Michelle Green of the Research and Negotiations Dept., Assistant General Counsel Leonard Polletta of the Legal Dept., Director Stephanie Velez, Assistant Director Hector Coto, and Rep Lisa Riccio of the Professional Division and Director Sherwyn Britton and Rep Keith Clarke of the White Collar Division.

After the library rejected the union’s request for voluntary recognition of the union, Mr. Polletta filed with the NLRB to set up the representation election.

“These folks are a great bunch of people with special skills who really wanted to be in a union,” said Ms. Green, who is now helping the Art Handlers draft their demands for negotiations with the library. “They knew they were being mistreated and came to the union for help,” she said.