Professor Strike at Western?

Update:  Strike averted for now! I don’t have details yet on how far the employer moved from its “0% raise” position.  Whatever deal was reached last night by the bargainers will now need to be ratified by the bargaining unit employees.  Ratification is not always a certainty, so we will watch what happens.
Those lefty radicals at Western are at it again.  Ok, that was a joke.  But the UWO faculty are on the verge of striking.  Here’s the Globe and Mail’s take.  As far as I recall, there’s never been a faculty strike at Western, though there has been at other universities, including mine, York.  So what has got the conservative Western faculty all riled up?
Not a lot of details in the press.  From what I understand, the main issue is the employer’s provocative wage proposal, which calls for a four year collective agreement at 0%, 0%, 1/2%, and 1/2% increases.  Even Stephen Harper would strike over that proposal, especially given that York’s faculty received 3%, 3%, and 2.5%, and U of Toronto recently was awarded 2.3%, and 2.3% by Arbitrator Teplitsky.  Presumably, Western is toeing the line that McGuinty wants a public sector wage freeze, as if workers are just going to say, “ya sure, whatever”.
Other issues still percolating around bargaining on the final days include a proposal by the employer to introduce some sort of post-tenure review process that would have tenured professors subject to some new form of ongoing performance review. Employers like these, for obvious reasons, and such reviews are commonplace outside of academia.  They are more controversial in the academic setting, depending on how they work, because of need, conceded by the university, to protect “academic freedom”.
Professors can be fired for misconduct.  But  the concern about a system that has the employer routinely assessing a professor’s academic writing is that universities will use the review power to oust professors who say controversial things when an important part of being an academic is being able to push the debate without fear of losing your job.  Would we have wanted Einstein to be afraid to put forward his theory of relativity, or Keynes to be afraid to advance his novel view of economics, for fear of offending a University Evaluation Committee and losing his job, for example? Those are the sorts of arguments that get floated around in these debates.  The UWO faculty association calls this proposal an attach on academic freedom.
[A recent example of this sort of fight occurred at U. Colorado at Boulder, which dismissed Professor Ward Churchill after he made  comments about the victims of 9/11 that the University found inappropriate.  Churchill sued for wrongful dismissal and won, but a court refused to reinstate him.]
Another proposal put forward by the employer still on the table, from what I understand,  would regulate romantic relationships between employees of Western!  Yikes, creepy.  Like UWO peaking into your bedroom window.  Quick, shut the blinds!
If the strike commences, sounds like classes will be cancelled.  We should know in the next 24 hours or so.