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Looming faculty strike worries Western University students amid end-of-term crush

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With exams looming and final papers due, Western University students say the timing couldn’t be worse for a potential faculty strike next week.

Western’s more than 32,000 full-time students are in the final weeks of the fall term. Exams are scheduled from Dec. 10 to 22.

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“I think it’s a terrible time for it to be happening,” said Jouzian Wahhab, 20, a third-year media and the public interest student. “In November, we have most of our major assignments due; we’re wrapping up our courses.”

The UWO Faculty Association announced Thursday night if a deal isn’t reached by 11:59 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14, about 1,600 full- and part-time members will be on strike, with pickets beginning Tuesday, Nov. 15.

If a strike goes ahead, classes and midterms would be cancelled and professors would no longer mark assignments or provide support or supervision to students.

“It’s the most hectic time of the year for students and professors,” Wahhab said. “As much as some students might enjoy a couple days off, it would just set us behind even more than we are already, racing to get caught up.”

Classes at Western’s affiliates King’s, Huron and Brescia university colleges would not be affected by the strike.

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Lily McDonald, a fourth-year media, information and technoculture student who hosts several Radio Western shows, said students feel “caught in the middle,” as bargaining goes down to the wire.

“There is a lot of worry and concern about the strike, I understand why the faculty is striking . . . but I feel that is unfair to students considering we pay expensive tuition to attend the school and each class,” she said. “To have that idea of a looming strike for an unidentified amount of time is a little bit concerning . . .

“I don’t like that the students are the ones who have to pay for it.”

Association negotiators met with the university for three days this week, the association said in a release on its website.

“Despite some signs of progress, the team does not see a deal coming together,” the association said.

“(Western’s) current offer on the table is not enough. We are tired and overworked after stepping up to save the teaching mission of the university during an unprecedented pandemic, and the employer’s words of gratitude for that must be backed up by concrete action in this round of negotiations.”

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The university is saving more than $4 million under Bill 124, the association said. The provincial legislation caps pay and benefit hikes for public-sector workers at one per cent.

“We need to see more on the table,” the association said.

The association identified benefits for part-time members and job security for contract faculty as key outstanding issues.

“The two largest issues for us (are) job security for our contract faculty and . . . workload for all of our faculty,” association president Hiran Perinpanayagam said this week. “Over the years, Western has increased its enrolment by thousands of students, but faculty numbers have remained largely constant over the last couple of years.”

The association is advising members to remove items from campus they will need during a strike and not to post new material online for students if a strike occurs.

The last time the association threatened to walk out was in 2018, but a last-minute deal averted a strike after months of haggling. Major issues then were pay and job security for contract and part-time faculty.

The two sides continue to meet, Western said in a statement Friday afternoon, adding, “The university is hopeful that an agreement can be achieved and a labour disruption can be avoided.”

hrivers@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/HeatheratLFP

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