Sam Reynolds

Sam Reynolds

SSMU’s endorsement of MUNACA, Teaching Assistants’ contract negotiations, and a proposal to replace tenants of the Shatner cafeteria were on the agenda at the  first SSMU legislative council of the year, held last Thursday.

The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) presented on Teaching Assistants’ ongoing contract negotiations with McGill and were invited back to speak at additional councils.

During the meeting, SSMU announced its intention to seek new tenants for the second floor cafeteria of the Shatner Building. Potential tenants include Lola Rosa, Burritoville, Green Panther, and Thali.

“This was a perfect opportunity to go for smaller businesses that are more student-friendly,” Shyam Patel, VP Finance and Operations, said in a follow-up interview.

The Society also passed a resolution in support of MUNACA and a speedy resolution of the strike. This differs from the SSMU executive’s previous endorsement of the union via email and on its website; the motion now backs MUNACA on behalf of the Society’s entire membership.

There seemed to be tension between the promises of transparency and consultation—two buzzwords frequently used by the current executive—and the importance of a speedy resolution to the strike. Motions were made to table the resolution until subsequent legislative meetings, citing insufficient student consultation. This was countered by representatives from the faculties of Engineering and Medicine, among others, whose constituents have been particularly affected by the strikes in terms of research, labs, and their graduation schedule.

“We did not table this motion because we believed that it was more important [to pass it, given] the time constraint, but I believe that more extensive student consultation would [result in] a more well-rounded resolution,” Arts Councillor Isabelle Bi said in a follow-up interview. She’d been in support of gathering more information on student support for MUNACA. She also thought  representatives of MUNACA and the McGill administration should have been invited, as with the AGSEM representatives, before passing the resolution.    

Within the resolution was a clause devoting SSMU’s research resources “to gathering and compiling information relevant to the strike.” According to VP External Joël Pedneault, this will involve researching and gathering information on McGill’s budget, which he maintains will be beneficial for SSMU’s constituents in the long run.

“There’s not a lot of coherent information out there about what real financial pressures McGill is facing,” Pedneault said. “I think that’s something that could be really valuable to have a very nuanced [and] detailed understanding of.”

The researcher is a permanent staff member who normally works on “the political issues of the day,” said Pedneault. “If there were no MUNACA strike … he would be working on an external policy related to government policy on post-secondary education, which ties into what financial pressure McGill faces.”

The debate eventually ended and the resolution passed in what Pedneault called a symbolic gesture. Councillor Bi disagreed with the urgency of the resolution’s passing.

“[The] SSMU executive has already discussed and delivered a public statement about MUNACA … [That] is enough for us to wait two more weeks and really talk to our constituents and individual respective legislative councils and get a broader sense of [where] students stand on this issue [before passing the resolution].”

This concern regarding insufficient consultation is salient as this resolution speaks for all of SSMU’s membership. Both Pedneault and Bi recognized this and spoke out in favour of increased consultation.

“Constituents should talk to their representative honestly and frankly … if there’s enough evidence [that students do not support the resolution], we can bring this up again in a different council.” Bi said. “I encourage everyone to write in: for, against, neutral … just so we can get a clear student message about this strike.”

“This is still a discussion. I don’t think the motion was intended to put a period at the end of a sentence,” Pedneault said. “If people disagree with [the resolution], then that’s a discussion that needs to happen. The forums we have for that are Council & the General Assembly.”

This year’s first General Assembly will be held Monday, Sept. 26.