All Posts Tagged With: "University of Western Ontario Faculty Association"
No faculty strike at Western
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
Western profs prepare for strike
Updated: Tentative agreement reached, no strike
Students at the University of Western Ontario could awake tomorrow morning to cancelled classes, if faculty and the administration don’t reach a negotiated deal today. University of Western Ontario Faculty Association offices have already been relocated to a strike headquarters in the London Mall. The union is an all day negotiation meeting with the university and a provincially appointed mediator.
Following the 17 day cooling off period, after the filing of a no-board report in October, professors are legally pertmitted to strike by 12:01am tomorrow, though negotiations may go beyond that. Faculty could be picketing as early as 6:00am.
At the beginning of October, faculty voted 87 per cent to give the union a strike mandate. On the 14th, the union requested a no-board report be filed with the Ontario Labour Minister, meaning a negotiated settlement could not be reached. A strike deadline was subsequently set for Nov 3.
The dispute centres around a proposal from the university to centralize assessment of professors, that UWOFA says interferes with deparmental autonomy and threatens academic freedom.
We will be updating this story as information comes in.
UPATE 7:30pm: The last update came from the university administration at 4:15 pm that indicated that negotiations are ongoing. As of 7:30pm, there has been no further word on the progress of negotiations.
UPATE 12:15am: The faculty association is now officially in a legal strike position but negotiations continue.
UPATE 4:00am: A tentative agreement has been reached, no strike for now.
Strike deadline at Western
Faculty could walk by Nov 3
Professors at the University of Western Ontario could be on strike as early as Nov 3. The faculty association announced the deadline late last week after the Ontario minister of labour filed a no-board report, meaning a settlement could not be reached with the university. Under Ontario labour laws, a 17 day cooling period is required before a union is in a legal position to strike. The report was filed on Oct 17, and the earliest faculty could strike would be Nov 3. There are five negotiating meetings between the university and the faculty association between now and then.
For background, please see our earlier coverage.
Western profs build strike war chest
CAUT donates $1million to Western faculty union
University of Western Ontario faculty could be on strike as early as the first week of November, and they will have no shortage of funds to pay for it. The Canadian Association of University Teachers has donated $1million, in the form of an over-sized novelty cheque, to the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association. The donation comes from CAUT’s $22 million strike defence fund that was established in 1978.
On Oct 1 Western professors voted 87 per cent in favor of giving the faculty association a strike mandate. Last week, the union requested a government appointed conciliator file a no-board report, meaning that a negotiated settlement could not be reached with the university. Under Ontario labour laws, a cooling off period of 17 days is required before the union can legally strike. Unless a settlement is reached, classes could be canceled by the first week of November.
For background to this story, please click here.
Western profs closer to striking
Faculty union requests conciliator file a ‘no board’ report
Professors at the University of Western Ontario are one step closer to going on a strike that could cancel classes for students. The negotiating team for the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association has requested a provincially appointed conciliator file a no-board report with the province, meaning agreement between the two sides could not be reached.
The union would not be in a legal position strike until 17 days after the report is filed. On Oct 1, the faculty voted 87 per cent in favour of giving the union a strike mandate. UWOFA has said that university proposals to centralize tenure and tenure review processes threatens academic freedom. Negotiation meetings between the union and the university are still scheduled into November.
For background, please see our earlier coverage.
