On November 30, 2022, AGSEM had a General Assembly of TA and Invigilator members. The primary purpose of this meeting was a midterm financial review, but we discussed several issues, including the university's COVID-19 response, solidarity with striking student interns, and disbursed funds from the union's Mutual Aid Fund.
Find the summary of the meeting written by Emma McKay, Mobilization Chief Delegate, below:
All 3 mask motions approved!
Advocating for campus-wide mask mandate (66 Y / 5 N)
Executive Committee (EC) will advocate for campus-wide mask mandates, ventilation improvement and info-sharing, and for the university to provide N95s
Mask mandate at AGSEM events (55 Y / 5 N)
Surgical or better masks are now required at all AGSEM events and meetings. Masks may be removed briefly to take a bit or sip. Masks are not required at outdoor events, but are still encouraged at loud and dense events like protests.
The EC will create and distribute education to workers on the scientifically-supported most effective ways to use masks.
Our mask policy will be publicly shared and noted in all event info.
Free N95s for invigilators (67 Y / 0 N)
Union funds will be used to purchase N95 masks through PGSS, to be distributed to invigilators working this exam period without charge.
Solidarity with striking UQAM students (42 Y / 0 N)
Many UQAM students threatened a strike a few days ago, both to protest conditions of internships and the threat of punishment from admin.
General Assembly (GA) expressed support for students' actions!
Talked about enacting solidarity by showing up for any potential demos
Enacting solidarity by mobilizing people requires work from the mobilization committee (and of course any interested workers who take action); folks interested in working to make this type of solidarity more widely available can join mob com by emailing Emma (dise.delegate@agsem-aeedem.ca) or Kiersten (mobilization@agsem-aeedem.ca).
Education about available support from grievance officer
A worker talked about how for minor issues, TAs in their department need support, but don’t necessarily want to raise a grievance. There is a need for informal support like attending meetings with TAs, writing emails together, and talking through problems.
JP, the TA grievance officer, talked about how it is his job and delegates’ jobs to do exactly this!
We identified that there’s a mismatch in knowledge—workers don’t know that they can reach out to their delegate or grievance officer for informal help! A grievance is only filed if that’s what they want to do. Otherwise, they chat and figure out alternate ways to go forward.
The Mobilization Committee is going to create educational resources about how delegates and grievance officers can help workers in these ways!
Workday and taxes
FYI: Workday tax options are confusing, especially for international students.
EC has requested a plain language explanation from HR.
Be careful and ask peers, delegates, grievance officers for assistance.
Finances
Many EC members have been working overtime. Previously, overtime pay has only been handed out when people leave their positions. Since these folks have had their positions for a while, the GA voted to distribute overtime pay at the end of each term going forward.
The mid-year financial report was approved.
Reports
Summaries of each executive officer, committee, and working groups’ work over the past year are linked in the agenda/minutes.
FNEEQ Congress
Vivian, Germano, Kiersten, Mario, & JP are going to the FNEEQ congress Dec 7-9 on behalf of AGSEM. They’ll be compensated & will vote their conscience. (47 Y / 3 N)
Mutual Aid
$1350 distributed to two students (42 Y / 0 N; 45 Y / 0 N)
Planning to distribute $600 to community organizations at Dec 6 DC
$1364 remaining in the fund to distribute Jan-Feb 2023
Attendance
97 in total attended! 71 highest number of people participating in any one vote.
That’s the highest we’ve had at a non-ratification GA in years!!!
The GA was 3 hours! That's also the shortest GA we've had in a long time!
Feedback
The folks designing and running these meetings are working on making them more efficient, accessible, and enjoyable. If you attended in-person or online and felt particularly frustrated, confused, or had difficulty following the conversation, please let Emma (dise.delegate@agsem-aeedem.ca) and Kiersten (mobilization@agsem-aeedem.ca) know when in the meeting you felt that way! Likewise if there was a time you felt like something made sense that hadn’t before, when you felt really connected to the rest of the folks in the zoom/room, or really felt you were heard by your fellow workers.