University of Windsor Faculty Vote in Favour of Strike

For students planning to attend the University of Windsor this fall, the question looms as to whether the doors will be open thanks to the possibility of a strike. Windsor University Faculty Association (WUFA) members voted on August 14 in favour of striking action. WUFA President Anne Forrest said the tally showed 81.4 per cent in favour of a strike mandate, with contract talks with the university in a deadlock.

It seems the summer break wasn’t long enough to work out the issues on each side, and after weeks of being at odds, the two parties failed to reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Although talk of a strike is in the air, it’s not a for sure thing. “Everybody has in their minds that the meaning of a strike is that immediately everybody’s out on the street and that’s not at all what we are planning,” said Forrest. “Our thinking is that our strike vote will tell the administration that WUFA negotiating team really does represent the interests and the desires of the members so that they’ll come back to the table.”

Ideally, WUFA wants to see a bargain reached before classes start to avoid impacting the fall semester. With less than two weeks left before the end of the month, Forrest seems confident, saying it’s “a huge amount of time in collective bargaining terms. We don’t need two weeks to settle this. We could do it in a couple of days.”

University president Alan Wildeman says, “We did all we could in bargaining, and we reached a point where it was clear WUFA was not willing to accept the fiscal realities of the university.”

Although a strike deadline has not yet been set, Wildeman concluded that “the university is not prepared to bargain with itself in the face of WUFA’s unrealistic monetary expectations.”

University of Windsor students, do your back-to-school shopping and stay tuned.