After a rally through the Thompson Rivers University campus last Thursday, members of CUPE 4879 have been quiet.

Local president Lois Rugg said Tuesday the support staff workers didn’t take any strike action Friday because of the fall convocation ceremony.

There isn’t much planned for this week, either, leading up to the resumption of negotiations on Oct. 18 and 19.

“We may be doing some local minor activities. Right now we don’t have anything major planned,” she said.

CUPE locals at five B.C. universities gave strike notice last week and all had some kind of related activity on their campuses Thursday.

But Rugg said the TRU group doesn’t want to disrupt students or cause classes to be cancelled. The TRU Faculty Association has asked its members not to cross picket lines if CUPE puts them up.

Instead, any job action up to Oct. 18 would probably involve information lines or something else small-scale that wouldn’t block classes, she said.

This week, TRU is hosting a Teachers of English as a Second Language conference and the president’s lecture is slated for Friday.

Rugg said it’s unlikely the union will go near those events.

The union represents about 600 workers at TRU who do just about everything except teach. Their last contract expired March 31, 2010.

University of Victoria, UBC, Simon Fraser and the University of Northern B.C. are in similar strike positions.

Rugg said she did get some positive feedback from Thursday’s rally, which drew about 150 people in a boisterous, noisy march from the Clocktower to the Campus Activity Centre.

“It did come to the employer’s attention. I had some comments from administration that we were respectful and appreciated the rally we put on,” she said.

“Our intent wasn’t to do a lot of disruption, just to make some noise.”

Christopher Seguin, TRU vice-president advancement, said he was grateful Friday’s convocation ceremony proceeded without incident.

“We’re really looking forward to Oct. 18,” when contract talks resume, he said.