It appears the strike by Essex County library workers a year ago may have sparked some new library patrons.
The 58 workers, members of CUPE Local 2974, walked off the job June 25, 2016 and remained on the picket line for a 231-day strike.
The strike ended four months ago in February and union spokesperson Lori Wightman says the patrons have been fantastic.
"People were worried that patrons wouldn't return and they have returned in droves," she says. "I don't have stats but I know personally I have created more memberships since we have been back than I remember doing in any period that long ever in the 13 years that I have worked there."
Wightman says the strike made people realize the importance of the library.
"Sometimes you don't realize how much something means until it is gone and it was gone for a long time so I think it was partially that and I think since we were in the news, people thought, hey library I'm going to check that out."
Essex County Chief Librarian Robin Greenall says since the strike ended, the library has launched some initiatives encouraging people to renew their membership and to gain new users which she says helped.
"If we do a comparison of our new users, I think that is probably the one we could identify the most, would be about 1000 new users over last year," says Greenall. "Certainly we were in the press quite a bit so it was identifying that libraries are within our communities, we were receiving attention, more attention than we normally would have."
AM800 file photo (Taken by Teresinha Medeiros)
Lori Wightman admits the relationship with the library board is "fractured."
"It is hard to go through something like that and feel devalued," says Wightman. "You come back to work and think you have any value to your employer at all so there is a little bit of residual feelings but patrons don't see any of that."
Wightman says the 231-day long strike changed a lot of people and bonded the group more closely. Workers gathered Saturday night to mark the anniversary.