The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) called off a strike after a tentative agreement was reached Nov. 3.

The union was set to walk out as of 12:01 a.m. but reached a tentative agreement at 4 a.m. after an 18-hour negotiating marathon, said Helen Connell, associate vice-president of communications at Western. If ratified, the agreement will mean a new contract for more than 1,400 full- and part-time faculty members who have been without a contract since June 30.

“Everyone is relieved. No one wants a strike. A strike is a tool, not a goal,” said UWOFA president James Compton. “We’re very pleased that we were able to avert a strike.”

“These were challenging negotiations and we’re clearly pleased and relieved that we have a tentative agreement,” Connell agreed.

Neither side would comment on the details of the agreement except to say they were pleased an agreement was reached. “You never take that for granted,” Connell said. “We take these negotiations very seriously.”

Some faculty members participated in advance polls to approve the agreement on Nov. 10, with the rest voting Nov. 11 and Nov. 12. Results are expected around 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 12, Compton said.

UWOFA met with faculty Nov. 9 to explain the details of the tentative agreement, Compton said. He said he believed the agreement would be well received.

“We fought long and hard to make sure that we held the ground on that and we believe we did. We held ground on the issues that our memberships said were important to them.”

University president Amit Chakma sent a mass email to inform students of the agreement early Nov. 3.

“I was pretty sure they were going to strike,” said Alex White, a third-year political science student at King’s College.

White said several of his friends were so convinced a strike would happen that they postponed writing research essays.. “[They] had to do them last-minute,” he said.

White said he supports the faculty’s right to strike but said he wishes they could have conducted negotiations over winter holidays to save students the stress of back-and-forth negotiations during midterms.

“It’s the students who suffer when they strike,” White said.

Ivan Leung, a fourth-year mechanical/materials engineering and psychology student at UWO, said he was disappointed in how the university communicated negotiation details with students.

“I am disappointed with the way the information flowed, or in this case did not flow,” Leung said.

Fellow student Lindsay Bowman agreed.

“Most of the official updates we were given really didn’t say much other than the usual platitudes about how the university was ‘working towards a solution,’ ” she said.

Bowman said she was worried about the effect a strike might have on the completion of her thesis.  “If the strike had gone on long enough, it could have really messed up my being on track to graduate at the end of this year,” she said.

Graduate TAs at UWO had also been in negotiations, but reached a tentative settlement Oct. 22 without voting for a strike mandate.

 At Carleton University, a strike remains a possibility for TAs and contract instructors.

However, full-time faculty, represented by the Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA), reached an agreement Nov. 7 such that there will be no faculty strike, according to Carleton’s website.

-with files from Chris O’Gorman