The Confederation of Faculty Associations of McGill (COFAM), a group of four McGill faculty unions, announced on Aug. 5 that they filed an application for judicial review in the Superior Court of Quebec to challenge the constitutionality of Quebec’s Bill 89. COFAM consists of the Association of McGill Academic Staff[Read More…]
Tag: Unions
Canada, union-busting won’t fly
On Saturday, Aug. 16, over 10,000 flight attendants went on strike in protest of Air Canada’s longstanding refusal to pay employees for their “ground work,” a term describing the labour obligations flight attendants execute while preparing the aircraft prior to take-off and after landing. The average flight attendant completes over[Read More…]
McGill does not contest the latest faculty union certification: A shift or merely an exception?
On Dec. 31, the Tribunal administratif du travail certified the Association of McGill Academic Staff of the School of Continuing Studies (AMASCS) as McGill’s fourth faculty union. AMASCS is the first instance of faculty unionization that McGill did not contest in court—a pivotal moment for the unions, who have faced[Read More…]
Letter to the Editor: What’s Left Unsaid of Unionization at McGill—On Abuse of Power and the Impetus for Structural Reform
Last week, the Labour Tribunal ordered McGill to cease meddling in the activities of the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL), the first faculty union at McGill. This decision, rendered amid a strike that resumed on Aug. 26, garnered national media attention, with many beyond the McGill community expressing[Read More…]
Is a student strike effective? It’s complicated
On Jan. 25, the McGill Religious Studies Student Association (RSUS), the Student Association of Sustainability, Science and Society (SASSS), and McGill Undergraduate Geography Society (MUGS) announced that their members would be on strike from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1. The strikes joined Concordia students in responding to the Coalition Avenir[Read More…]
Support workers against the collapse of the public sector
Since the end of September, public-sector employees unionized under the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, Confédération des syndicats nationaux, the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux and the Fédération travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec, in Quebec have been marching to demand better pay[Read More…]
Tribune explains: Unions and associations at McGill
McGill employs over 12,500 staff across its two campuses. There are fourteen unions and two associations that represent, support, and advocate for part- and full-time, academic and non-academic employees of the university. What are unions and associations? Unions bring workers together to hear their concerns and advocate for better working[Read More…]
McGill files for judicial review against law professors’ union certification
On Dec. 6, McGill filed for a judicial review of the Nov. 8 Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT)’s decision to certify the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL) as a union. The appeal came a day before the case-law deadline to file such an objection: Applications for review must[Read More…]
Cautious optimism for McGill unions as year closes on historic faculty unionization
McGill stood for 200 years without a faculty-specific union until Nov. 8, when the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL) was certified by the Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT) after a year-long litigation process. As another collective agreement (CA) negotiation is added to the overwhelmed McGill Human Resources (HR)[Read More…]
It’s a lot, and it’s honest work
I don’t remember when I first learned about the existence of sex work. Certainly, I learned about sex at some point in a middle-school classroom, probably among a group of snickering teens. Yet the idea of sex as a job did not exist in my mind until cinematic depictions introduced[Read More…]
