Sector profile: Library

OVERVIEW

CUPE library workers are predominantly employed in public, school, and post-secondary libraries. They make libraries spaces that are open, welcoming, and accessible to everyone. They provide vital services to promote literacy and combat mis- and disinformation. They connect people to countless resources and to one another. They design and deliver a broad range of services such as family story time, peer tutoring programs, and digital literacy skills training. They answer innumerable questions about anything and everything. And they support learning, research, employment, creativity, and social engagement to help empower people.

 

ISSUES

Funding

Libraries and library workers are feeling the squeeze from stagnant library funding and funding cuts.

Provincial funding for public libraries has long been frozen in most provinces. Libraries are cutting hours, services, and jobs to reduce costs. Inadequate funding prohibits libraries from implementing measures to prevent violence and harassment, increasing the risk of workplace incidents. The problem is compounded by the underfunding of community social services, mental health supports, and public housing. Individuals in crisis turn to libraries for help they need but are unable to access elsewhere in their community. Greater funding for libraries must be accompanied by increased investments in housing, addiction and mental health services.

In the education sector, inadequate funding is resulting in the closure of school libraries and the elimination of library worker jobs. Funding to purchase new books and resources that meet students’ changing needs and interests also falls short. Some schools have converted their libraries into classrooms to accommodate student population growth. Closing libraries and cutting library workers’ jobs underestimates the role of libraries and library workers in promoting literacy, numeracy, creativity, and vibrant learning environments. Every school should have a library that is well-funded and supported by full-time, qualified library staff. 

The post-secondary education sector is in crisis. Chronic underfunding is resulting in campus closures, program and job cuts. Libraries are struggling to build and maintain academic resources and purchase new technology. Students rely on the library to help fill technology gaps. When academic libraries are inadequately funded, it negatively impacts library workers’ ability to cultivate a supportive learning and research environment for students, faculty, and staff.

 

Workload and burnout

Library workers are feeling the negative effects of chronic underfunding and budget cuts. Members are experiencing staffing shortages, recruitment and retention issues, job cuts, lost hours, and library closures. Long-standing job vacancies are going unfilled by employers, leading to skeletal staffing levels, cuts to services, and the inability of staff to access vacation time. These conditions severely compromise workers’ health and well-being. 

 

Workplace violence and harassment

Workplace violence is a significant health and safety issue in school and public libraries. Members are struggling under the weight of experiencing, witnessing, and intervening in violent incidents; sometimes with devastating consequences. Workers in public libraries also face high rates of patron-involved drug use and overdoses. They’re on the front lines of the housing, mental health, addiction, and affordability crises. 

Among public libraries, employers are implementing different measures to help address workplace violence, including technological innovations, security guards, staff training, social workers, peer support programs, and changes to building layouts. Locals are bargaining stronger health and safety provisions into their collective agreements to help prevent incidents. Despite these measures, the rates of violence and overdoses keep climbing. More solutions are needed. Some fall within the scope of libraries and library work, while others must address the intersecting mental health, addictions, housing and affordability crises.  

In the education sector, understaffing and underfunding result in high levels of violence.  Members are burned out and experiencing high rates of injuries. Education workers, including school library workers, face barriers to reporting violence, including a lack of support from management, fear of reprisals and judgement of their professional abilities. Workers are caught between a student’s right to an education and their right to a safe and healthy workplace. Education workers are calling for adequately funded action plans to address violence in schools to help make them safe for everyone.

 

BARGAINING

CUPE library workers made important gains at the bargaining table over the past two years but also experienced difficult rounds of negotiations and demands for concessions. 

Significant challenges from the employer include demands to:

  • Roll back scheduling protections
  • Increase the number of hours auxiliaries must work annually to maintain their job
  • Regularize Sunday hours and eliminate Sunday premium pay

Key wins at bargaining tables include:

Improvements for precariously employed workers

  • Paid sick days, paid vacation days, and benefits for temporary, casual and part-time staff

Stronger health and safety language

Monetary gains

  • Improved benefits, including stronger gender-affirming care leave provisions and paid days for family responsibility leave
  • Increases to shift differentials
  • The addition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to statutory holidays
  • Paid Indigenous ceremonial and cultural leave time

Non-monetary gains

 

 

CAMPAIGNS

Members of CUPE 53-04, who work at the Whitby Public Library, organized a campaign to fight back against the municipality’s proposed cut to the library’s budget. Members of the local union attended public events, informing community members about the proposed cut, and asking them to support their petition against it. A member of the local also delivered a deputation to council, calling for the elimination of the cut. As the city’s population and inflation increase, the member argued that funding must grow so the library can grow.

In 2025, CUPE Saskatchewan launched a province-wide multimedia campaign to profile CUPE public service workers. The campaign highlights the human side of CUPE members who provide services across Saskatchewan. School and public library worker members are featured in the campaign video and in some of the billboard and transit ads in the communities where they live.