Negotiations ended yesterday between Fanshawe College and the teacher’s union without much progress, leaving some instructors torn over a possible strike.

“You’re not dealing with cars, you’re not dealing with widgets, you’re dealing with students who you’ve already established a relationship with,” said Paddy Musson, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 11.

Yesterday’s talks were the first since a recess was called late last week.

Fanshawe union members were one of only a few schools who voted against a strike position two weeks ago. Musson said it was the first time the college had voted below provincial average in many years.

“We have been here so often before,” she recalled, adding an actual strike occurs only 25 per cent of the time after a strike mandate. “The odds are pretty good in our favour.”

With lower than average support for a strike mandate, Fanshawe instructors are in a difficult position should the provincial union decide picket lines are necessary.

“Normally we have a good, healthy strike mandate, and that’s what backs the employer off. When you have a tight mandate, it can push the other side [to] exploit [the union],” Musson explained. “It’s sort of like, ‘What little things can we offer to knock off an additional seven per cent of the faculty, either in sweeteners or in terrors.”

The negotiations surround wage increases, life insurance premiums and pension plans for 9,000 academic staff at 24 Ontario colleges represented by OPSEU.

—Stuart A. Thompson