The union representing the city’s library workers has asked the Labour Ministry for a “no board,” report after weeks of unproductive negotiations with the Toronto Public Library Board, CUPE announced Friday.

“We expect it (no board report) to arrive sometime today and we will be in a position of 17 days until a legal lockout or a strike,” said Maureen O’Reilly, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4948.

The board has not put forward one proposal to address the “crisis” of precarious work. Fifty per cent of the workforce works part-time under unstable working conditions, O’Reilly told a news conference Friday morning.

Members have given CUPE a very strong mandate “in order to find a solution,” she said. However, “we are very committed to achieving a collective agreement, service disruption is the last thing we want to do.”

The union is also disappointed the employer is taking the same aggressive approach to seek the same deep concessions that they did in 2012 under the Rob Ford administration, she added.

That year, workers went on strike for 11 days, shutting 100 branches across the city.

Talks began in early February. The contract expired at the end of last year.