Three years ago, Student Accessibility and Achievement (SAA) transformed the note-taking role from a paid to a voluntary position. Note-takers are students who provide their notes to other students registered with the SAA. Since the change, many students registered for the SAA’s note-taking accommodation and note-takers themselves have been disappointed[Read More…]
Tag: AGSEM
Students march in protest at annual climate strike, renew calls for McGill to divest
Divest McGill, a student activist group on campus, held a rally and march for the climate on the afternoon of Sept. 23. They started at the bottom of McTavish Street before leading sign-wielding and chanting students up to the George-Étienne Cartier Monument at Parc Jeanne-Mance. There, the McGill group joined[Read More…]
PGSS Council votes to endorse climate strike on Sept. 23
The Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) convened for its first council meeting of the Fall 2022 semester on Sept. 14. Led by speaker Adrienne Tessier, the meeting’s agenda covered issues such as McGill’s fossil fuel investments and teaching assistants’ (TA) rights. The meeting began with an overview of the various PGSS[Read More…]
McGill unions frustrated with ongoing delays in collective agreement negotiations
As of Sept. 13, only one of McGill’s 14 labour unions—the teaching assistant unit of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM)—has an active collective agreement (CA) in place with the university, according to McGill’s Human Resources (HR). CAs govern salaries, hours, benefits, and working conditions of unionized[Read More…]
AGSEM pens open letter condemning continued issues with Workday
In October 2020, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) sounded the alarm over technical issues with the newly implemented Workday Human Resources (HR) system, which left hundreds of employees without pay for months. Two months into the Winter 2021 semester, some McGill employees are still without pay[Read More…]
Fall 2020 TAs still missing payments as the semester nears end
Following various technical issues with Workday, McGill’s new human resources (HR) system, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) has filed several individual, union, and collective grievances against the university in accordance with their Collective Agreement (CA). Some problems included lack of access to technology necessary to teach[Read More…]
Unresolved issues with Workday HR system leave hundreds of TAs unpaid
A variety of issues have persisted since McGill’s Human Resources (HR) system transitioned from Banner to Workday in August 2020. Eight weeks into the Fall 2020 semester, hundreds of McGill employees—teaching assistants (TAs) in particular—experienced delays in payment, and some have still not been paid at all. McGill staff have[Read More…]
Graduate student workers must not be taken for granted
The COVID-19 pandemic has toppled the higher-education house of cards, scattering vulnerable academic support staff into uncertain workplace predicaments. McGill forced these employees into dire straits well before the pandemic: Overburdened by faculties and underappreciated by students, the university treats teaching assistants (TAs) and other academic support staff like raw[Read More…]
Collective agreement ratified at AGSEM’s TA General Assembly
The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) held its Teaching Assistant (TA) General Assembly online on Sept. 30 to vote on the new tentative TA Collective Agreement (CA). After two years of negotiations, AGSEM’s Bargaining Committee presented the tentative contract to the AGSEM Unit 1(TA) membership. The meeting[Read More…]
Tribune Explains: Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM)
What is AGSEM? The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) is the union to which teaching assistants (TA) and invigilators for McGill university belong. Founded in 1974 as the McGill Teaching Assistant Association (MTAA) and certified in 1993 as a union to represent Teaching Assistants, AGSEM is the[Read More…]
