Three hundred and forty Halifax Public Library workers could be on the picket lines in less than two weeks.

The impact of this potential strike could reach a lot of people in our community, according to Chad Murphy, Vice President of the Nova Scotia Union of Public and Private Employees (NSUPE) Local 14 – and that is exactly what they are trying to avoid.

Murphy says by August 26, union members could walk off the job if an agreement is not reached with library management.

This would affect library clerks, service advisors, those who work on the front-line, departmental staff and essentially anyone who is not in management.

In addition, anyone from the community who uses their services.

Murphy tells our newsroom they would feel terrible that their customer base would be affected by their labour dispute.

“Our staff are incredibly passionate about the work we do on a daily basis, and it was a hard decision to take the strike vote because we are very committed to the communities that we serve.”

No longer traditional work

The role of your local library has changed since the pandemic.

Murphy says they played a key role in providing COVID tests when the pandemic began as well as access to facilities.

Now, they have ventured into a whole separate area of “traditional” library work, by becoming what Murphy calls, a “safe space”.

“Our staff are dealing with issues surrounding drug use, home insecurity, food insecurity …so that’s really outside our scope of work as library professionals.”

This, he says, is why wages are a hot topic.

Libraries are also a place that provide snacks, air conditioning or warmth and several other services such as printing, social assistance workshop referrals, business workshops, programming for young children and more.

If workers go on strike, a lot of community support offered by the library, would really take a hit.

Whether buildings would even open at all, would be up to management, and if they do, Murphy says he’s not sure what that would even look like without staff there.

Negotiating

Members have been without a contract since March or April 2023 and negotiations have been ongoing since October 2023.

In addition to pay, other key issues include parental and sick leave, with those details still needing to be ironed out.

Murphy says both NSUPE and management have been working diligently to negotiate in good faith and are hoping to avoid a strike.

“…But if not, we have taken the strike vote and unfortunately it could go that route.”

Cathy Maddigan, Director of Human Resources with the Halifax Public Libraries in a statement to our newsroom says,

“The Library has been working with NSUPE Local 14 who represents library workers on a new collective agreement since fall 2023. Despite the best efforts of both negotiating teams, we were not able to reach an agreement through conciliation on July 29th; we are committed to this ongoing work and are hopeful that we can agree on the outstanding issues in the coming weeks.”

They reached an impasse June 27, started conciliation talks July 29 and will continue, August 25.