And suddenly, everything is supposed to be back to normal

 Well, not normal, but as normal as they can be.

This will be my last blog for a while. I'll try to do this more regularly, but daily is kind of a drag without something interesting like the strike to talk about.

Late Sunday night, some kind of deal had been reached. Agreements were made on several governance issues, a few were compromised, and I'm pleased to say that some things that the Dark Side had been insisting on were withdrawn completely. It was agreed which issues to send to arbitration, and a rough timeline for arbitration has been worked out.

So Monday (was that only yesterday) the union called a special general meeting. We heard details about the tentative agreement, and there was some lively discussion of what had been and had not been accomplished. Then there was the vote, which was conducted online, via secret e-ballot, making use of some fancy secure system that one of our board members knows how to use. The vote was to ratify the agreement, and head back to work.

Which meant that at least for some members, classes resumed at something like 8 this morning. Gag.

I've spent the day (and most of yesterday) trying to figure out how the rest of my classes is going to go, and crafting communications to students to get ready for our first meetings back, tomorrow.

So we're not on strike anymore, interrupted classes are now back in session, and hopefully we've made some advances toward the better university we all want. And in a few months, because I guess that's how long it takes, there will be arbitration on remaining issues. Nobody got everything they wanted (in particular the College of Nursing will pursue some other means of getting what they need), some things were compromised, some things withdrawn, and letters of understanding have been settled. Or settled enough that the executive of the union unanimously recommended ratification.

So that's it. The end of #umfaStrike #umfa2021. A three-year contract (retroactive to last April), so with any luck we won't be in this position again in 2024, but at least it will be until then.

Today was the first (weekday) since November 2nd that my day didn't start (because I'm not a morning person) with the daily meeting of my strike cluster. These are people I'd never met before, from both campuses and several faculties and libraries. I know very little about most of their personal lives, and even less about their actual work (although of course I know a little about what fields everyone is in, because academics can't help but talk about their work), but union solidarity, shared experience, and if nothing else proximity and time, but I've come to think of them as good, if not close, friends. I'm going to miss them.

I hope when we get our brunch reunion planned we can all stand being in each other's physical presence ;)