More than 860 members of the University of Ottawa ’s teaching professors’ association have cast ballots in favour of a strike.
After a five-day electronic voting period, the Association of Teaching Professors of the University of Ottawa (ATPUO) announced Friday that members had voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of job action, including a strike if necessary, across its three bargaining units.
The union said 88.2 per cent of members in the main unit, 73.1 per cent in the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI) Unit and all members in the Toronto-Windsor Unit voted in favour of a strike mandate.
In a media release, the union’s chief negotiator, Nelson Arturo Ovalle Diaz, said the results demonstrated an “unprecedented mobilization” among members.
“Our members are sending a clear message to the administration that they no longer accept the status quo and that current conditions have become intolerable,” Ovalle Diaz wrote.
The union stressed that a strike mandate did not mean classes at uOttawa would be immediately disrupted, but rather was a “strategic tool” intended to pressure university administration to return to the bargaining table to negotiate a new agreement.
ATPUO’s collective agreement with the university expired on Aug. 31, 2025, with the union saying negotiations had since focused on improving working conditions.
The union also raised concerns about a university proposal to create an unlimited number of intensive teaching positions and incorporate them into the bargaining unit representing regular professors.
“This would increase precarity and threaten the quality of education,” said Luc Angers, a member of the bargaining committee.
The union said it remained confident that an agreement could be reached without a labour dispute and that student success remained a priority.
“The association therefore calls on the administration to resume negotiations immediately in a spirit of openness, collaboration, and good faith, with the goal of reaching an agreement that reflects the needs of our university community,” the ATPUO statement said.
The union represents more than 2,500 contract and part-time professors who teach at uOttawa.
