UWindsor Professors Going On Strike

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Photo from 2008′s professors strike at the University of Windsor

Professors at the University of Windsor will interrupt normal operations for a one-day strike this month.

The Windsor University Faculty Association will be “going on a one-day strike on September 15th with the intent of forcing the university administration back to the bargaining table,” the association announced this morning.

“We are very close to a deal and we are confident that, if the University administration returns to the table in a spirit of compromise, we could have this issue resolved without impacting classes,” says WUFA president Anne Forrest. “I personally invite President Wildeman to send his bargaining team back to the table to work things out and get this deal done.”

“On September 3rd, WUFA decided that if there is no settlement of current contract negotiations by midnight Sunday, September 14, 2014, faculty members, librarians, and AAS ancillary staff, including coaches, teaching-learning specialists, and part-time faculty, will hold a one-day strike on Monday, Sept. 15th,” the association said.

WUFA also plans rotating half-day strikes starting on September 16th in the morning and afternoon, to be announced two hours in advance.

WUFA says if no settlement is reached by October 1st, the union will go on strike fully.

A strike vote was held mid-August after WUFA said the university informed the faculty association that the terms and conditions outlined in its final offer will be implemented on July 28th. Members of the faculty association had rejected that offer.

The final offer had no wage increases in the first two years, but there was a 3% wage increase in the third year. The offer also had a lump sum payment of $1,000 in the first and second year, as well as an increase of $2,550 for “progression through the ranks” and an increase based on the Windsor Salary Standard. The contract also called for an 1% increase to faculty’s pension payments from 8% to 9%.

The Faculty Association said they rejected the deal because “it contains costly concessions and a wage increase that is below what other faculty associations are settling for.”

In an update to campus, the University says that “The University remains available to resume bargaining at any time. The University did not walk away from the bargaining table. However, the University will not bargain against itself in the face of WUFA’s continual denial of the fiscal realities of the University and WUFA’s unrealistic monetary expectations.”

WUFA says they don’t wish to go on strike.

“Believe me, we are not a group of employees that wants to go on strike, which is why we’ve been so reluctant to make this decision,” Forrest said. “But our members really don’t see any choice as long the administration completely ignores the principle of negotiating with us and we continue to work under unilaterally imposed terms and conditions of employment.”