More than 4,000 of the University of Toronto’s teaching staff could walk off the job after midnight Thursday if their union and the school don’t reach a deal.
Teaching assistants, graduate-student instructors and other members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3902 voted late last month to reject the university’s latest offer and set a strike deadline of Feb. 24.
"[The] meeting emphasized the increasing frustration of our members," CUPE Local 3902 chair Wayne Dealy said at the time.
"This is the second unequivocal message they've sent to the University of Toronto, and the university really needs to start listening."
The union says the key issues are tutorial and lab sizes, research support and pay rates.
A strike could affect 70,000 students at all three downtown campuses, but the university has said it would remain open.
The teaching assistants have been without a contract since April 30, 2011.