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.