With strike looming, U of G faculty reaches tentative agreement

University of Guelph faculty were gearing up for a strike last week, but as of Sunday, they’ve reached a tentative agreement with the university. 

“Now we have to finalize the memorandum of settlement, and then we bring it forward for ratification to our membership, the administration brings it forward to the Board of Governors. If all goes smoothly, then we would have collective agreement,” said Herb Kunze, chief negotiator for University of Guelph faculty association (UGFA).

Until then, he’s trying to be optimistic. 

The unpredictable piece, he said, is that preparing the memorandum of settlement requires the administration and UGFA to agree.

“Usually there’s no problem, but you never know,” he said. “I think both sides are eager to do it quickly and I think both sides are happy with the outcome.” 

While Kunze couldn’t get into the details of the agreement yet, a post on UGFA’s website says members want to avoid burnout, an acceptable work-life balance, time for scholarship work, more control over how they teach, smaller class sizes, better recruitment and retention, and “to be able to afford a house in Guelph,” among other things. 

UGFA represents faculty, librarians and veterinarians at the University of Guelph – around 850 members total. 

If a collective agreement was not reached, the union would have been in a strike/lockout position by 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 24.

According to Kunze, UGFA has never been on strike.