Faculty at the University of Western Ontario voted 87 per cent for a strike mandate Oct. 1, just days prior to the Carleton faculty strike vote on Oct. 4 and 5. Still, students at both universities don’t need to panic just yet, union and administration representatives say.

“Strike votes are one of the [bargaining] tools,” said Jason MacDonald, director of university communications at Carleton.

“A strike vote does mean that pressure gets ramped up and that is done as a way of trying to speed up negations and resolve it as quickly as possible,” said James Compton, president of the Western Faculty Association.

“We believe the best outcome for the university and certainly for the students would be a negotiated settlement,” MacDonald said.

“I’m surprised and disappointed by this decision, and hope that it can be resolved quickly and with minimal impact on our education,” said Derek Wong, a fourth-year biochemistry student at Western.
Wong said he doesn’t think a strike would be fair for students. “While I respect everyone’s desire for more money, it is a wholly unnecessary burden on students at Western . . . to be held back for an indeterminate amount of time for this reason. Nobody wants another York University fiasco,” he said, referring to the three-month strike at York two years ago.

Helen Connell, associate vice-president (communications and public affairs) said Western isn’t sure about the likelihood of a strike. “We don’t know how it will go, “ she said. She said strike votes “are not new.”

Even if a strike occurs, students might not have to worry. “It depends on how long the strike goes on for, depends on what sort of protocols are signed pertaining to academic penalties. All of these things can be handled well or not so well,” said Johannes Wolfart, president of the Carleton University Staff Association (CUASA).

Connell said the university does not see a reason why faculty and administration won’t reach an agreement.  “I think that students are concerned about this, but the message I’d like to send to students is that we are continuing to negotiate, that a strike vote is part of a process, but it’s too early to rush to believe we cannot negotiate a settlement,” Connell said.

Compton agreed. “The likelihood of a strike is low,” he said. “We’ve had three strike votes over the years here and in each case we helped bring about a resolution and a collective agreement,” he said.

Wolfart said he expects Carleton to pass a strong strike mandate as well. “The issues at Western and at Carleton are similar and they go right to the very core of what it is to be an academic and I expect strong strike mandates,” he said.

He added that he doesn’t believe comparisons with the York strike should be made. “The issues are different, it’s a totally different context,” he said. Given the similarity of issues being discussed at both Western and Carleton, he said he approves of comparisons of the two.

“If you compare that with Western, they’ve actually only been bargaining since the 20th of June, I believe, and they’re already holding their strike vote this week, so I would say compared to Western we’ve been quite patient. But we’re getting nowhere right now,” Wolfart said.

Talks between the university and faculty at Western resumed Oct. 5, while talks have been ongoing at Carleton. At press time, no agreement had been reached. On Oct. 4 and 5, CUASA voted 88.5 per cent in favour of a strike mandate.