McGill Tribune

This week, 26 McGill professors signed an open letter expressing support for the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM)’s “UDrive” to unionize course lecturers, or contract academic staff, at McGill. On Thursday, the McGill Daily expressed its support for the drive and called for “university-wide solidarity.” As both the letter and the Daily editorial noted, the decision to unionize is ultimately one that course lecturers will have to make for themselves. Until then, we would like to add our voice in support of the unionization of course lecturers at McGill.

The reasons for unionization have been stated many times in many publications, but they bear repeating here. McGill’s course lecturers are the only ones who are not unionized in Quebec. This is not in itself an argument for their organization, until you look more closely at their working conditions. Despite a minimum pay increase this January and one scheduled to take effect next year, McGill’s course lecturers will still only earn $7,000 per course, just over 87 per cent of the provincial average and $600 less than the next stingiest employer. Incidentally, this most recent top-up was announced October 6, after the UDrive campaign was already in effect. Whether one believes AGSEM’s claim that the pay raise—which also comes with new, simplified contracts, improved access to campus facilities, and increased opportunities for career advancement—was in response to their efforts, or Provost Anthony Masi’s assertion that the changes are the result of a senate task force’s findings, contracted academics at McGill need a mouthpiece to ensure a continued say in improving their working conditions.

Course lecturers get no benefits to supplement their meagre pay. They’re on temporary contracts, often with little prospects for achieving tenure., although they do the same work as tenured and tenure-track staff (and constitute 50 per cent of Canadian university lecturers). They often teach large classes, since they are often put in charge of those courses which fulfill students’ degree requirements. They hold office hours, mark assignments, and are expected to publish their own research in order to keep their jobs and improve their position. While all careers have entry-level positions with relatively poor conditions, academics are starting work with up to 10 years of graduate studies already to their record. They have often studied with the best and brightest, and have already written full-length dissertations. They have spent years as teaching and research assistants. Most arrive in their late 20s or early 30s, and many are looking to start families. They have a highly specialized skillset that cannot be transferred easily. Entry-level academics may not be experienced professors, but they deserve to be treated better.

McGill’s duty to improve the lot of its contract staff—and to let them organize a useful union to speak on their behalf—is also a responsibility it owes to both its students and academia in general. To its students, it owes quality educators. While McGill enjoys its reputation, excellent academics may be willing to accept lousy conditions to teach at a prestigious institution in an exciting city for a short time. However, it is unlikely that the most talented lecturers can be enticed to work with low pay and tenuous job security for long. If McGill’s reputation slips, and it cannot attract quality teachers, its students will inevitably suffer.

Finally, academia itself suffers from disregard of its employees. Academia is already a labour of love; a profession that asks the best-educated minds to forsake incomes in law, medicine, or business for a life in university walls with the high goal of spreading knowledge. A professorship does not have to buy a yacht, but it should support a comfortable lifestyle. McGill and its lecturers cannot change trends throughout academia, but it should be acting in the service of all those involved. And a system in which our best and brightest decide that a lengthy PhD and years of unstable employment are not worth it is a system in which we all lose.

That is why we support course lecturer unionization, without anybody’s interference. Good luck.