Mediation will begin Friday following the Thompson Rivers University Faculty Association issuing a 72-hour strike notice Monday.
Faculty Association President Tom Friedman says the parties have been at the bargaining tables for over eleven months.
“We think there has to be significant movement from the employer from their state of positions as of last week in order to reach that settlement, so we’re willing to give mediation an opportunity to have that take place and we hope the mediator will come in and push both parties towards a resolution.”
Friedman says the parties will be meeting for an extended period of time over the weekend and that the Faculty’s key demands are really about faculty involvement in academic decision making.
He says one of their main concerns in Williams Lake, in particular, is that decisions are being made above the campus that they feel will have negative impacts on the community and the access to high-quality education.
There are roughly 25 to 30 full-time and part-time faculty members in Williams Lake.