Griffin Barry started his first year at Woodstock High School with the perfect book recommendation.
A lover of manga, computers and Dungeons and Dragons, his father suggested getting into science fiction with Ender’s Game, a late 20th-century novel by Orson Scott Card.
But when Barry went to his school library to find the book, there was no longer a library worker there to help him.
Students in the Anglophone South and Anglophone West school districts returned to class in September without school library workers after those positions were eliminated last spring.
After seeking help from the school office, Barry eventually found his book. He was told that in the future, he should sign out material through his English teacher.
“It’s a pen-and-paper system,” he said. “But there’s no poster explaining it. There’s nothing.”
Layoffs were expected
The layoffs were fully expected, according to New Brunswick Finance Minister René Legacy.
The change comes as no surprise to Barry, a reading enthusiast who spent his summer wondering what access to books and a quiet reading space would look like this school year. But the change still stings for book lovers like him and the workers who held those positions just last year.
It’s the final chapter in a year-long fight between the provincial government and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, stemming from a $43-million budget shortfall from the Department of Education in 2025 that led to job cuts in Anglophone West, Anglophone South and Francophone South school districts.
A New Brunswick labour board ruling in July 2025 demanded the province rescind the cuts, arguing the employer bargained in bad faith during recent negotiations since it knew layoffs were coming.
School library workers returned to their jobs in September, but, just before Thanksgiving weekend, they received notice that layoffs would be issued once a collective agreement was ratified.
Once that happened in the spring, terminations could proceed.
‘Schools no longer have traditional library tasks’
Many school library workers retained employment by securing other work within their bargaining unit.
In the Anglophone West district, 14 library workers found other positions, according to spokesperson Paul MacIntosh. Of the eight who elected to remain in layoff, two are working casually within the system.
Over in Anglophone South, 10 of 12 library workers remained with the district.
“Library worker roles are clerical support roles. As many schools have shifted to classroom-based book collections and Learning Commons models, schools no longer have traditional library tasks,” wrote spokesperson Jessica Hanlon in an email.
Francophone South said all 13 library assistants impacted by the layoffs secured other employment.
“Of those, eight obtained another library assistant position, including four who remained at the same school with a different number of hours,” wrote spokesperson Jean-Luc Thériault in an email.
Despite this alleged absence of traditional library tasks, Theresa McAllister, president of CUPE Local 2745, said she’s keeping a close eye on how schools might be reshuffling responsibilities that once belonged to library workers.
“I’m still in the investigative mode, but I have heard rumblings of work that was formerly that of our bargaining unit is being done by other union groups and parents and students,” she said.
McAllister is part of a school library working group that met just last week. The fight to restore library positions is not over, she said, and the group is preparing to ramp up a campaign it started last year to spread the word about that fight.
“Our grievance papers are ready,” she said. “We’ll file grievances on everybody and anybody who is doing that work that belongs to us.”
Unlike some schools that have eliminated their library spaces — Bliss Carman Middle School, for example, converted its library into a classroom because of high enrolment — Woodstock High School has left the library a student space, according to Barry.
It’s something his mother, Ali Orr, is grateful for. She heard about a nearby school that turned its library into a staff room and said she’s happy Woodstock High didn’t do the same.
Still, she wishes the school had a library position, someone who could foster a safe space for students, answer questions about books or teach basic library skills.
Not having the library workers “is a detriment, especially with socialization and with numeracy and literacy rates dropping,” Orr said. “I think it’s a step in the wrong direction.”
Barry’s love of reading isn’t going anywhere — he simply wishes there was a library worker on hand to talk books with, and not just for himself; without a school library worker to guide them, students might default to seeking entertainment on their phones instead.
“It’s been a confusing thing for everyone, and it makes it a lot harder to get books,” he said.
Source: CBC New Brunswick