Dear members,

As we are planning our vacations for the upcoming reference year, please keep in mind the following:

As unionised employees, vacation scheduling is not at the whims and discretion of our supervisors. When multiple employees want the same time off and the department cannot accommodate, seniority is to be the deciding factor. It doesn’t go to the supervisor’s favourite, or to the person willing to work unpaid overtime. Seniority is used as an objective criteria to make a fair decision.

In order to have seniority as a consideration in your vacation request, you need to submit your requests for the next reference year (June 1st, 2024 – May 31st, 2025) by April 30th, 2024. They will be approved or denied by May 10th, 2024. This gives us time to address any problems.

Vacation can, of course, be requested after this period, but it will be granted on a first-come, first-serve basis rather than by seniority. It is also subject to operational needs.

In some departments, there may be times when they need everyone present.  This may be due to a special event, a deadline, or another short-term reason. These are called blackout periods. The Collective Agreement specifies that these must be kept to a minimum and must be communicated to the affected employees by March 1st, 2024, so they can be challenged if necessary and taken into consideration when submitting your requests.

If you feel that the blackout periods for your department are unreasonable, if they were not communicated to you by the deadline, or if other restrictions are being applied that are not in the Collective Agreement, contact reception@munaca.com and we can work with you to rectify the problem.

In solidarity,

MUNACA

Dear members, 

In another resounding victory for the labour movement at McGill, the professors of the Faculty of Arts have announced that over 60% of the faculty have signed unionising cards and will be filing for certification this Wednesday as the Association of McGill Professors of the Faculty of Arts (AMPFA)! This makes Arts the third faculty, after Law, and Education, to unionise at our university. We at MUNACA welcome them into our ever-expanding union family and hope that every other faculty at McGill swiftly follows their example. 

Their union intends to cover both tenure-track professors and faculty lecturers at the Faculty of Arts, though the full extent of their certification will be determined by the Labour Tribunal when they file. 

We invite all MUNACA members to attend AMPFA’s press conference and rally announcing their certification on Thursday, April 4th, 2024, at 2:30 PM, on the steps of the Arts Building.  A guest speaker from AGSEM will be present as well, to acknowledge AMPFA’s solidarity with the TA strike. If you are able, please come out and show solidarity with our new union siblings! 

In solidarity,

MUNACA

Dear members,

The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) has announced that starting Monday, March 25th,at 7:30 AM the teaching assistants are officially on strike! Pickets begin at the Roddick Gates and the Macdonald Stewart Building and last all day. We invite all MUNACA members able to do so to join them on the lines before work and at lunchtime to show solidarity!

Furthermore, if there are AGSEM Teaching Assistants in your faculty who are on strike, remember that Article 18.02 of the MUNACA collective agreement protects your right to refuse to cross a picket line, with no penalty other than non-payment for the working day.  We encourage all MUNACA members in affected faculties to exercise their Article 18.02 rights according to their conscience. Members can also use their lunch hours, breaks, floater and personal days to join the picket lines.

We stand with AGSEM as they fight for a fair contract! For any questions about how this may affect your workplace, please contact reception@munaca.com.

In Solidarity,

MUNACA

Dear members,

Two of our fellow McGill unions, AGSEM (teaching assistants) and MCLIU (course lecturers), will be holding a rally in support of their bargaining demands in front of the James Administration Building, Wednesday, March 20th, at noon (12:00PM). With AGSEM’s strike vote having passed with an overwhelming majority, it is important that we turn out to support their cause. Your MUNACA officials will be attending in solidarity, so come join us and show McGill what union power looks like! 

In Solidarity,

MUNACA

MUNACA is proud to wish all our members a happy International Women’s Day this year! This holiday, a tradition begun at the turn of the last century by women in the socialist and labour movements, celebrates the fight for womens’ rights and equity around the world, and calls upon us all to join in their further advancement.

At MUNACA, women make up 70% of our membership and provide vital services to the McGill community, from student affairs to finance to lab technicians, and the many other positions we represent. But the struggle for equity at our union and at McGill, as it is for women everywhere, is far from over. 

As MUNACA, we commit to upholding equity and inclusion against all kinds of gender-based systemic barriers. Happy International Women’s Day to all!

February 24, 2024

Dear members, 

On February 15th, 2024, McGill Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS) announced that starting Fall 2024, it would eliminate the Floor Fellow position in McGill residences. This unprecedented decision, impacts a unit of 65 unionized workers under The Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE), and hundreds of students.

As MUNACA, we stand in solidarity with AMUSE against the University’s decision, taken without any consultation, to abolish an entire bargaining unit by eliminating the floor fellows’ role. This move, replacing 65 positions with 45 ‘residence life facilitators,’ not only jeopardizes essential student services but also raises concerns about McGill’s commitment to the well-being of its students. Moreover, as sibling unions we understand that an attack on one of us is a threat to all of us. MUNACA extends its ironclad solidarity to AMUSE floor fellows against McGill’s anti-union actions.

McGill Floor Fellows play a crucial role in the lives of first-year students as primary contact points in residences as students navigate a major transition period in their lives. Over decades, Floor Fellows have enriched the lives of tens of thousands of students, parents, and members of the McGill community. Not only do they create a sense of community and provide work-study support for students, but they ensure the safety and wellbeing of their residents. 

Since the announcement, hundreds of students, parents, and McGill workers have voiced their opposition through a survey released by AMUSE. Their responses show the lasting consequences the abolition of Floor Fellows would have on the McGill community. If you or someone close to you has been positively impacted by a Floor Fellow, we invite you to share your experiences, share AMUSE’s letter with your networks, and contact McGill Student Housing and Hospitality Services to urge them to reconsider.

If you or someone close to you has been positively impacted by a Floor Fellow, we invite you to share your experiences, share AMUSE’s letter with your networks, and contact McGill Student Housing and Hospitality Services to urge them to reconsider.

In solidarity,

MUNACA

The Bargaining Priorities Survey for the upcoming round of negotiations is now live and awaiting your responses. We strongly encourage all members to fill out the survey in either English or French. All responses will be used to set the demands for this round of negotiations. It is important that you and your coworkers identify your needs and priorities for strong and representative negotiations. Please check your McGill inbox for links to the survey. The survey takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete and aims to ask about all facets of the Collective Agreement. You can start the survey, save your results and finish it later. However please submit it by Monday, February 5th, 2024 when the Negotiations Committee will begin compiling responses. The results will be presented for review and approval to the membership in a Special General Meeting in the coming weeks. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send them to negotiations@munaca.com In solidarity, The MUNACA Negotiations Committee Alex Abruzzese-Goyette, Thomas Chalmers, Sherrie Child, Sophie Hough-Martin, David Roseman, Robin Stanford.

Nomination procedures: The nomination period will start effective immediately, Tuesday, January 9, 2024 and will continue until Friday, February 2, 2024 at 17:00. Details of the election procedure will be sent out after that date. Please mail to Chief Returning Officer, c/o MUNACA, 3483 Peel Street, Montreal, QC H3A 1W7 OR email your nominations to elections@munaca.com by Friday, February 2, 2024 at 17:00. Seventeen (17) positions of the Union Council are up for election: (1) Vice-President (Labour Relations) must submit a nomination form signed by ten (10) members in good standing from any campus. (1) Vice-President (M Affairs) must submit a nomination form signed by ten (10) members in good standing from any campus. (1) Vice-President (Communications) must submit a nomination form signed by ten (10) members in good standing from any campus. (1) Chair of Communications Committee must submit a nomination form signed by five (5) members in good standing from any campus. (1) Chair of Grievance Committee must submit a nomination form signed by five (5) members in good standing from any campus. (1) Chair of Solidarity Committee must submit a nomination form signed by five (5) members in good standing from any campus. (5) Chief Steward/District Head – Downtown Campus must submit a nomination form signed by five (5) members in good standing from the Downtown campus. (4) Chief Steward/District Head – Macdonald Campus (including Gault Estate) must submit a nomination form signed by five (5) members in good standing from the Macdonald campus. (2) Chief Steward/District Head – Glen Campus (including Solin Hall) must submit a nomination form signed by five (5) members in good standing from the Glen campus. All nominations must be accompanied with a pensketch of 400 words or less in English and 450 words or less in French. Website or social media links are not permitted in the pensketch but may be used during the campaign. The candidate’s pensketch must be submitted in both French and English. If a candidate would like MUNACA to provide translation of the pensketch, they must send it to research@munaca.com no later than Tuesday, January 30, 2024 at noon. The translation will be returned to them before the nomination deadline. Please note that this is only a translation service and does not constitute the submission of the nomination itself. Candidates have no obligation to use this service and may translate the pensketch themselves, however pensketches that are not submitted in both French and English will not be accepted. The candidate must ensure that word limit is not surpassed in the final version. For information on the roles of Chief Steward/District Head, Chairs of Standing Committees and Executive Officers, please see the MUNACA by-laws.   Mary Chin Chief Returning Officer

Today, December 6th marks the 34th anniversary of one of the most brutal mass killings in Canadian history at Ecole Polytechnique. Today we take time to reflect upon violence against women. We take some time to consider the impact this horrible act had on not only the 14 women who were viciously murdered simply because they were women but on the impact it has had on their friends, families and love ones and on our society as a whole. Please keep these women in your thoughts and hearts today.