Halifax Public Libraries staff are on strike after conciliation talks between the employer and their union ended over the weekend without an agreement. "It was a difficult decision for the bargaining team to make yesterday to actually walk away from the table at the end of the day and prepare for a strike," Chad Murphy, a vice-president of the Nova Scotia Union of Public and Private Employees Local 14, told CBC News while picketing outside the Alderney Gate Public Library in Dartmouth, N.S.
, on Monday. "Obviously we're all devastated. We love the work we do.
" Negotiations had been ongoing since last October between Halifax Public Libraries and the union, which represents 340 employees. The strike began at 12:01 a.m.
on Monday. "When we did get down to the money yesterday, we were hoping to make a deal," Murphy said. "The closest we were at one point was a dollar over four years difference, which we calculated to about $156,000 give or take.
And they came back with twenty-five cents on that. So it was at that point that we were still at an impasse and we had to take the action." Behind Murphy, fellow union members chanted, "Twenty-five cents, that's outrageous.
Pay your workers living wages." Chad Murphy, a vice-president of the Nova Scotia Union of Public and Private Employees Local 14, spoke with CBC News while picketing outside the Alderney Gate Public Library in Dartmouth on Monday, Aug. 26.
(Jeorge Sadi/CBC) "I feel like our wage ask was not unreasonable considering what .