Western University and the faculty union have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, averting a strike.
The deal means that classes will proceed as normal on Tuesday and comes after several months of negotiations between University of Western Faculty Association (UWOFA) and the London, Ont., university.
The union had set a strike deadline for just before midnight Monday, after members voted 91 per cent to authorize strike action last month. UWOFA president Hiran Perinpanayagam confirmed to Global News around 11 p.m. that a tentative agreement had been reached.
“This deal will need to be ratified by the membership in the coming days,” he wrote in an email.
The union, which represents about 1,500 full- and part-time faculty members at Western, has said some of its main issues during this round of bargaining were equitable workloads, equal access to benefits and job security for contract faculty members.
The negotiations were restricted by provincial legislation that caps public-sector wages at 1 per cent annual increases for a three-year period.
The two sides started negotiations in April and faculty members had been working without a contract since June.
–With files from The Canadian Press.
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