The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) is the oldest Teaching Assistant Union in the province of Quebec. As a labour union, AGSEM represents graduate Teaching Assistants, Invigilators, and Course-Based Academic Casuals at McGill. AGSEM has bargained with the McGill administration to produce TA and Invigilator Collective Agreements, which are legal documents that protect student workers.
Recent NewsWorking Towards A Practicable, Transparent, and Fair Hiring Process
On Friday November 7, our bargaining committee met with McGill to discuss two big clauses: job postings (Article 12) and hiring/onboarding (Article 13). We are pleased to say that significant progress has been made on both of them! For job postings (Article 12), your bargaining committee and McGill have reached an agreement in principle. Our goal was to give members enough time to apply for positions while ensuring that you can also be hired in a timely manner.
Trick (Workday Job Applications Pending Eternally) or Treat (Clear Conflict of Interest Policy?)—Bargaining Updates 9 and 10
On two equally rainy, tempestuous Wednesdays, our intrepid bargaining committee came from far and wide to fight for the contract unit 3 deserves. That is right, this is a double-update covering the bargaining sessions on October 22nd and 29th! By and large, both weeks were focused primarily on Articles 12 (job postings), 13 (Hiring, Onboarding), and 14 (Health and Safety, General Provisions). Regarding Article 12 (and 13), McGill had given their proposals piecemeal over the course of the summer, and we took these two sessions to engage with them in full, trading proposals back and forth.
Conflicts of Interest, Safe Spaces, and Union Democracy at the Table – Bargaining Update #8
This week, we brought McGill our counter-proposal for Article 14, which covers general provisions within the unit. Within Article 14, we were able to secure important health and safety protections at this session, and we presented a clear conflict of interest (COI) policy, as per the mandate our workers gave us. Our proposed policy built upon McGill’s existing COI, but specified to apply in situations like when a grader has friends in that class.