AGSEM

Conflicts of Interest, Safe Spaces, and Union Democracy at the Table – Bargaining Updat

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. McGill negotiators wanted their existing COI, but their COI is made for professor-level conflicts of interest. It simply does not work as effectively as our members deserve. While McGill didn’t seem amenable to our proposed COI policy, as it was deemed too wordy, we are taking it as an opportunity to make an even more air-tight COI policy, and will return to the table ready to fight for it. 

We also discussed the important issue of teaching support needing dedicated space to do their duties. Ever had issues booking a room? Ever had to grade in a hallway because you had nowhere to go? Us too! We want to ensure our workers have the space necessary to safely do their work. Our working conditions are students’ learning conditions! 

One very concerning detail on McGill’s bargaining procedure: they asked us to change language regarding how many AGSEM members can sit at the University’s Health and Safety Committee in our two other collective agreements, which cover Teaching Assistants (Unit 1) and Invigilators (Unit 2). Aside from the fact that this concerns the working conditions of other workers and goes against the principle of union democracy, this is legally impossible. The bargaining committee for Unit 3 can only represent and make decisions at the table for the workers who elected them, and we had to give McGill a firm reminder about this.

On our side of the table were Jordan Cowie (1L, Grader & Course Tutor, Management/Law), Bronwyn Walsh (Recent Graduate, Grader & Course Assistant, Math & Stats), Connor O’Keefe (Undergraduate, Course Assistant, Math & Stats), Donald Morard (PhD Candidate, Grader, History), and Guillaume Forest-Allard, our advisor from our affiliate union Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ), and Dallas Jokic, AGSEM’s co-president. We had six additional AGSEM members in attendance.

Do you want to see our next negotiation take place? Sign up to be a member in the room! We have 4 new dates set:

Please fill out this form to sign up, and we’ll be in touch**.**  We’ll see you there! Love and solidarity, Your Bargaining and Bargaining Support Committees

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