Tentative deal reached at 3am after 18-hour bargaining session
A tentative agreement has been reached to avert a strike by professors at the University of Western Ontario. The deal comes after the 12:01 a.m. strike deadline was delayed to allow negotiations to continue. The school’s faculty association says a solution was struck around 3 a.m. — making the entire negotiation session 18-hours long.
No details of the agreement were announced and the association says the date for a ratification vote has not yet been determined. The 1,400 unionized part-time and full-time professors had threatened to walk off the job if a deal was not reached by Wednesday. Classes for Western’s 33,000 students would have been cancelled if a strike had occurred.
Negotiations began in May and the professors’ contract expired June 30. Faculty association president James Compton had said compensation and performance evaluations were key issues in the talks.
Meanwhile 1,100 administrative and technical staff, who are members of the University of Western Ontario Staff Association, are in a legal strike position on Thursday.
The Canadian Press