Excerpt form OCUFA Report October 26, 2010
UWOFA rents space for strike HQ as talks head to Nov. 3 deadline; coordinated bargaining strengthens its university bargaining, CUPE tells faculty association negotiators.
The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) has rented space for a possible strike headquarters as talks head towards November 3, when UWOFA members will be in legal strike position.
There are five negotiating meetings scheduled before the November 3 deadline. And as UWOFA approaches its deadline, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) representatives told a meeting of the OCUFA Collective Bargaining Committee last Friday that a strategy to coordinate its own bargaining in the university sector will mean a united front when negotiating with university employers.
At two Ontario universities, staff and faculty members are embroiled in difficult negotiations at the same time. As the Carleton University Academic Staff Association goes into conciliation talks, two CUPE units at the university head towards a deadline. And at Western, a campus staff association has taken a strike vote, as faculty face their own deadline.
