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Talks between Western University and the union for its more than 1,600 faculty members continued late Thursday ahead of a deadline that threatened to plunge the school into a strike as early as today. The two sides have been trying to work out a new collective agreement for months, including with the help of a provincial mediator, but no agreement had been announced amid last-minute negotiations. Key issues include job security amid growing reliance by Ontario schools on cheaper contract hires. A strike, if it comes, would affect more than 30,000 full- and part-time students before the first-term exam period. It would also trigger public transit detours in the campus area, with the London Transit Commission saying it would re-route buses running through campus to avoid crossing picket lines. It wasn’t immediately clear how Saturday’s Ontario university football championship game at the school, between the Western Mustangs and the University of Guelph, stands to be affected if a strike unfolds. The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association had set a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. today. “(The faculty association) has returned to the table today and continues to work hard at reaching an agreement that addresses our primary concerns regarding job security for contract faculty and compensation for faculty members that aligns with our comparable research intensive universities in Ontario,” Dan Belliveau, head of the association, wrote in an email. The association in September voted 94 per cent in favour of strike action, if needed, to back their stand in contract talks. Officials from Western didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, but the university has said it has made contingency plans in the case of a labour disruption. The union sent an email to its members Tuesday preparing them for a possible strike, informing them how to sign up for picket duty and asking them to clear out their offices by Thursday night. Members also were notified the union is setting up a strike headquarters in the former Rexall building at 611 Wonderland Rd. The University Students Council (USC) said it has been providing students with information about the negotiations and alerting them to any possible fallout from a strike. With memories still fresh of labour disruptions at other schools, including last year’s five-week strike in Ontario’s community college system, which idled thousands enrolled at London-based Fanshawe College, some students are jittery, their council president said. “Some students are nervous because they’ve seen what happened at York University, as well as the more recent Fanshawe strike,” Mitch Pratt said. “We really wanted to make sure that we’re being as transparent as possible and educating the students and streamlining communications surrounding the negotiations so there’s as minimal impact as possible,” he said. Pratt said the USC last year adopted a policy to remain neutral in labour disputes. “It allows us to represent student interests in both sides of this discussion,” he said. “We’re really hoping and expecting that (they) could reach an agreement by the end of the day.”