Still No Full Proposal from McGill. We’re Not Backing Down - Bargaining Update # 3

We were back May 2nd for our third round of negotiations with McGill!

Present for our Unit 3 bargaining team was Jordan Cowie (1L, Grader & Course Tutor, Management/Law), Bronwyn Walsh (4th year Undergraduate, Grader & Course Assistant, in Math & Stats), and Donald Morard (PhD Candidate, Grader, History), along with our advisor from the Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ), Guillaume Forest-Allard. We were also delighted to have our new Unit 3 grievance officer Connor O’Keefe with us. Bargaining support committee member Ellie-Jeanne Hébert joined as an open bargaining member.

McGill started off (once again) pushing back on open bargaining. Despite the fact that we have a mandate from our unit, a statement of support from our assembly, and a proven track record with the Unit 1 Teaching Assistant negotiations, McGill continues to undermine democratic participation.

We were able to ask vital questions about their tabled proposal last week, specifically surrounding their unwillingness to include protection against harassment of workers by students in their proposed harassment and discrimination clause, and their dismissal of deadnaming as a form of harassment. As these items were both voted on by our membership, we are continuing to push against their proposal to remove them.

McGill also provided a counterproposal on some articles, such as an updated “recognition” article that sets out a collegial tone to structure disagreements and the execution of the agreement. McGill did add more positivity than last week (where they wanted to strike it altogether), but took out recognition of the valuable work that union executives do (such as the work that your bargaining team is doing right now 👀) and added a fascinating addition that student workers should be aiming to advance the “mission” of the university. While we are happy that there is progress being made, there is clearly work to be done in truly structuring a positive and collaborative tone in this article.

We also heard that McGill is on board to streamline positions, meaning reducing the number of disparate position titles that exist for very similar work. We will be navigating this deftly in upcoming sessions, as this is a very important point.

We have scheduled our upcoming sessions with McGill, and have informed them that we will expect a full proposal next time we meet. It is definitely a challenge to negotiate 3 articles at a time without the full vision! We expect this will change soon.

Want to see what comes next? Sign up to attend one of our next negotiation sessions! Your participation helps us bargain in your best interest and have AGSEM stand united. ❤️

In solidarity,

Your Bargaining and Bargaining Support Committees