McGill Tribune

After eight months of negotiations, the McGill administration has ceded to the core demands of AGSEM, the union representing McGill University’s teaching assistants. The result is a new three-year contract for TAs that includes an annual salary raise of 1.2 per cent, an added pay rise of three per cent for TA work done during the holiday period, and mandatory pre-semester TA training. The settlement puts to bed the possibility of TAs going on strike this spring.

This agreement is welcome news. Earlier this yesr, the Tribune supported AGSEM’s demands because we believed the proposals to be beneficial to the McGill community as a whole: a training program is a good way to improve the confidence and calibre of our TAs; a pay raise, especially higher holiday pay, will incentivise more rigorous marking and more thorough feedback for students. Furthermore, during a year in which the MUNACA strike has already put heavy burdens on faculty and students alike, the prospect of a TA strike in addition would be as difficult for students and staff to stomach as curdled eggnog.

The administration therefore deserves applause for accepting most of AGSEM’s demands, regardless of whether or not their motives were fuelled by a pragmatic aim to strengthen their hand in the MUNACA negotiations. If the administration’s Christmas present to AGSEM was given not just in the holiday spirit, but with an overture of realpolitik, then AGSEM members owe MUNACA a big thank you.

Yet the signing of a contract is not a guarantee of optimum teaching and fair working conditions. The Tribune is concerned with the fact that in certain large courses, there are too many students for too few TAs. The Tribune hopes that in response to higher hourly rates, the administration does not cut the number of TAs hired, but rather looks to find ways of increasing the hours TAs are allowed to work. TAs are a vital part of the McGill educational experience, their help is invaluable, and it is important that the administration recognise this.

Furthermore, we are keen to stress that the opportunities for incoming graduate students to become TAs ought to be more clearly stated. Currently, the system is one which, due to the timing of applications and position offers, only advertises TA positions to graduate students who are already enrolled. This is a needless restriction of the TA talent pool, something that can and should be addressed by adusting the sequence of the academic calendar. 

This is the first time in AGSEM’s history where TAs have received a pay rise without recourse to striking. In the future, we hope to see this moment not as an anomaly, but as the setting of a precedent.