At 5 a.m. on the first day of classes, a tentative agreement between university administration and Steelworkers Union Local 1998 averted a strike that could have severely inconvenienced students on all three campuses, announced United Steelworkers’ Ontario/Atlantic Director Wayne Fraser.
Local 1998, which represents over 5,000 technical and administrative staff involved in registrar’s offices, IT services, A/V support, lab support, housing staff, and more, had been without a collective agreement since July. Negotiations broke down early on Sunday morning but were resumed later in the day at the request of the Ministry of Labour. A marathon all-night bargaining session resulted in the last-minute agreement.
“We believe we have reached a fair and responsible agreement that will allow the University of Toronto to continue its mission of ranking among the world’s leading public universities,” said Angela Hildyard, vice-president of human resources in a statement. Details of the agreement were not available at press time, pending today’s information meetings for union members. Voting on the deal will follow next week.
The tentative agreement will have to be approved by the business board and win the union’s ratification vote, scheduled for September 19th.
