As the Teaching Assistants (TAs) strike rolls into its second week, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM)—the union that represents TAs and Invigilators—has continued to negotiate over TAs’ new collective agreement (CA) with McGill and has called for all other academic support workers to sign union cards. 

Since the beginning of the academic year, AGSEM and McGill have met 16 times to negotiate a new CA after the previous one expired on July 31. After AGSEM passed a strike mandate during the week of March 11, it met with McGill once again on March 19. McGill’s latest offer was a 4.25 per cent wage increase the first year, 2.25 per cent the second year, and 2 per cent in subsequent years, alongside an offer to put indexation on the agenda of the Labour Relations Committee—which AGSEM deemed unfair. Picketers are calling for better wages, healthcare, and indexed working hours for TAs. They have been at the Roddick Gates since the first day of the strike.

In a written statement to The Tribune, bargaining committee member Nick Vieira explained that at the March 26 bargaining session, McGill and AGSEM discussed what a potential deal between the parties could look like, given the items in AGSEM’s mandate. Furthermore, a bargaining session scheduled for the morning of Friday, March 29 was called off on Thursday evening by McGill. 

“Despite AGSEM’s flexibility, McGill seems to be more interested in investing energy in attempting to undermine the strike, giving out dubious legal advice, and spreading misinformation, than they are in finding the deal,” Vieira wrote. “While we engaged in many discussions on wages and the problem of TA hours being cut while undergraduate enrolment remains the same or rises, a deal was not reached. McGill remains unwilling to give TAs the contract they deserve, despite our repeated attempts to indicate to McGill where a deal might be.” 

Vieira also encouraged students to join TAs on the picket lines to advocate for the vital nature of the position to the university’s functions. 

“We invite TAs and allied undergrads, grads, professors, course lecturers, and staff to join us on the picket line to continue to show McGill: McGill works because we do,” Vieira added. 

Meanwhile, AGSEM is mobilizing to unionize additional academic support staff positions. 

Bradley Por—a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Law and an AGSEM member—told The Tribune that the additional positions that AGSEM is looking to unionize are “open-ended” and include course assistants, graders, tutors, mentors, and other positions such as students who assist others through the Math Help Desk.

“It depends, department by department. Like in Math, for instance, its undergraduate course assistants, which are people that […] did really well [during] their first year, so they can grade the assignments for the class,” Por said. “So they’re actually supporting the TAs, so the TAs don’t have to do it, but they’re getting paid [$16] an hour. It’s also inconsistent across faculties. Because the same job in Computer Science is paid the TA rate.”

In a written statement to The Tribune, Kiersten Beszterda van Vliet—a Ph.D. candidate in Musicology and Gender, Sexuality, Feminist and Social Justice Studies and a member of AGSEM—explained the importance of academic support staff unionizing, stating that they essentially perform the same work as TAs while being paid lower wages. Van Vliet further explained the importance of all workers being unionized, as they believe McGill will be forced to more closely follow labour law once this happens.

“In most cases, this is the exact same work as graduate Teaching Assistants, and should be compensated as such. The only way to fix this is with a union that can collectively negotiate for better conditions because McGill is using a legal loophole of the ‘non-exclusivity’ of the work of unionized TAs (because professors also do grading or teaching, for example) to hire workers outside of existing collective agreements,” van Vliet wrote. 

AGSEM is calling for academic support workers to sign their union cards before the end of the academic year. If over 35 per cent of academic support workers sign union cards by April 30, there will be a campaign to mobilize a vote on whether to join the union. If 35 per cent or less sign, a vote would not be able to take place, and instead, they would have to mobilize for a vote once again at the end of the next academic term. If over 50 per cent sign their cards by this deadline, they will automatically have a certified bargaining unit with AGSEM. 

“So from May 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024—that’s the academic year—we need to get like 50 per cent of all the employees that work in that time to sign a card. Then as of May 1, [2024], it’s like a whole new year,” Por said. 

Van Vliet also explained that the last time AGSEM tried to mobilize a bargaining unit for academic support staff in April 2020, they were able to get over 35 per cent of union cards signed, which led to a vote in the Fall of 2022. 

“We only lost this vote by one ballot. McGill’s lawyers had delayed this vote for so long that, unfortunately, we could not get in contact with all the workers from 2020 who had moved away. It’s frustrating because we could have already won a contract for these workers and they could have a higher wage right now as well as the benefits of job security and representation in labour disputes,” they wrote. 

McGill’s Faculty of Law does not give TAs, but rather, hosts “Group Assistants” (GAs). Mark Kersten, who graduated from McGill’s Faculty of Law in 2022, elaborated on this in an email to The Tribune, sharing that GAs essentially perform the same tasks as TAs do for other faculties. 

“As I understand it from my time there, [GAs] are effectively TAs. They do work like providing feedback to students, sometimes presenting in the course, helping with evaluations, responding to students, and so on. They pay tuition to receive credits for this work on behalf of profs. Ultimately, this is a pay-to-work scheme (students pay for the ‘experience’ of working for professors),” he wrote.

Kersten also shared that he brought the nature of the position to the administration in the past, but was met with a refusal to acknowledge the problematic position. 

“Instead, it is defended on the basis that working is a ‘learning opportunity,’ which makes little sense because employment is a learning opportunity too. Like, when do people stop learning? And should people who are remunerated stop learning? Of course not. The argument is absurd,” Kersten added. “In my view, it would be fair to reward students with those credits without having them pay tuition in addition. The remuneration for labour would therefore be in credits.”

Van Vliet stressed the importance of all academic support staff signing their union cards, even if they are graduating this year or will not occupy one of these positions again. 

“Hundreds of graders, tutors, and course assistants have already signed their cards. We have more than enough right now to get another vote at the Labour Tribunal. We don’t want to go to a vote again because a vote leaves too much to chance,” they wrote. “This is why we are in our final push in the next four weeks to get over that 50 per cent plus one threshold to win this union for academic support workers outright. We are asking everyone to sign their card as soon as possible.”

Kersten also shared that while it’s important for GAs to unionize as well, it’s even more vital that the university ends the “pay-to-work” nature of various academic support staff positions. 

“Regardless of whether they unionize or not, it behooves the school—out of a sense of decency and dignity—to end the practice of having students pay to work. It should require no further action by students or anyone else,” Kersten said. “It’s an appalling, unjustifiable practice that undermines labour rights.”

McGill could not be reached for comment in time for publication.