Brampton Library workers ratify new contract, avert system’s first strike

Brampton Library workers have voted to ratify a new collective agreement with their employer, avoiding what would have been their first strike. This closes out a bargaining dispute that had pushed members to a 97 percent strike mandate vote in June. 

The decision comes roughly ten weeks after CUPE Local 1776, which represents about 180 full and part-time library workers across the system’s nine branches, delivered what the union itself called an overwhelming strike mandate. 

According to a press release by the union, workers secured a 12 percent increase in wages—3 percent per year across the next four years and a signing bonus. 

In terms of scheduling, the union has secured “increased guaranteed part-time hours of work” and flexibility in sick leave. 

As The Pointer reported in August, 97 percent of the members voted in favour of strike action, with the union citing understaffing, unpredictable scheduling, and wages that hadn’t kept pace with inflation or Brampton’s population growth. 

Brampton Library CEO Todd Kyle told The Pointer that even though workers voted to strike, all nine branches were open and busy throughout the summer.

(The Pointer/Alexis Wright)

At the time, Brampton Library CEO Todd Kyle told The Pointer that all nine branches had remained open on their normal hours through the dispute, calling the summer one of the system’s busiest thanks in part to a well-used summer reading program. Both sides said conciliation was underway even as the strike mandate vote landed.

CUPE 1776’s collective agreement with the library expired March 31, and the two sides had been at the table since. The Union’s central complaint was less about a single number and more about predictability – thin schedules that get shuffled to cover sick calls, cancelling programming like makerspace sessions, and as the Vice President Stefanie Cowton told The Pointer in August, insufficient wages that left workers relying on food banks amid an ongoing affordability crisis. 

The dispute unfolded against a backdrop of tight municipal funding. Brampton Library’s operating budget rose just 1.4 percent for 2026, to $22.6 million, following $22.2 million in 2025 and $21.4 million in 2024. These increases, the union said, didn’t come close to matching Brampton’s growth or inflation, as previously detailed by The Pointer. Kyle had argued the library fared comparatively better against other municipally funded services, saying the system held non-union positions back to protect front-line staffing. 

 Brampton Library has struggled with funding cuts due to Mayor Patrick Brown’s repeated budget freezes.

(The Pointer/Alexis Wright)

The union’s frustration also landed amid a longer pattern of capital funding cuts to the library under Mayor Patrick Brown’s repeated budget freezes, including a roughly $1.7 million reduction in 2024, and a further drop from $1.74 million to $850,000 in 2025, even as the City’s own infrastructure assessment found more than a third of the library’s furniture and equipment in “very poor” condition.

The ratification became official, and in a statement, the Union said, “This agreement marks the first time in more than 15 years that library workers have seen their wages increase compared to inflation. It also improves benefits and protections for part-time workers, and comes without concessions that would have been damaging to programming and services. It is an important step by the library, and we hope the public will continue to show support for library services by asking candidates about library funding during the municipal elections.”

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