Unit 3 Bargaining Newsletter #0: AGSEM’s Unit 3 is ready to negotiate—why isn’t McGill?

Course-based academic casuals hold their first assembly and elect their first bargaining committee!

It’s was a historic day for course-based academic casuals at McGill! On 27 November 2024, the recently unionized unit (Unit 3) of course-based academic casuals held their first Unit Assembly as a part of AGSEM. At this assembly, members set their priorities for negotiations, elected their first bargaining committee, elected a bargaining support committee, and agreed on a mobilization strategy.

Unit 3 includes a wide range of workers: graders, tutors, undergraduate course assistants, graduate student assistants, course assistants, and graduate teaching fellows. These workers, like teaching assistants in Unit 1, do work which is crucial for McGill to deliver high-quality education. Recognizing their importance, Unit 3 members mandated their bargaining committee to pursue pay equity with TAs. TAs currently make $36.25/hour in their hard-earned contract following their recent negotiations and 3-week strike in Spring of 2024. In contrast, many unit 3 members doing the same work make as little as minimum wage ($15.75/hour)—less than half. Unit 3 does the same, crucial work as TAs. Why not get paid like a TA, too? 

Members in attendance also voted for protections against harassment, discrimination, and sexual violence, simplifying and better defining positions in the Unit, clearer hiring processes, and clearer workloads, among other items which deeply matter to workers.

Members also elected their new bargaining committee: Bronwyn Walsh (4th year Undergraduate, grader & course assistant, in Math & Stats), Jordan Cowie (1L, grader & course tutor, Management/Law), and Donnie Morard (PhD candidate, grader, History). This stellar team is eager to get to negotiations! To support this negotiations team, members also elected a bargaining support committee, including Connor O’Keefe (3rd-year, undergraduate course assistant, in Math & Stats) and Megan Millet (4th year, undergraduate course assistant, in Math & Stats).  

Unit 3 has also opted to pursue open bargaining: the strategy which TAs used during their last round of negotiations to maximally involve members in negotiations, every step along the way. In open bargaining, all members are invited to attend negotiations, provide their expertise as the true experts on their working conditions, and make it clear to McGill: we will fight for the contract we deserve!

Unit 3 is eager to begin negotiations. On December 6th, we informed McGill we would be ready to negotiate as of January 13th, 2025. McGill responded that they have not yet carried out the necessary research and data collection to identify areas of focus, and do not yet have a financial mandate from McGill’s Board of Governors since that BoG only meets next on March 18th and May 23rd. We reminded McGill that the BoG also meets on January 16th, and could secure a financial mandate then. We also informed them we would be ready to present non-monetary items before discussing monetary. McGill responded that they could be amenable to the latter proposal, and would get back to us in the new year. We await their follow-up!

How will you fight for the contract you deserve? 

If you are a grader, course tutor, undergraduate course assistant, course assistant, graduate student assistant, or graduate teaching fellow—how are you going to fight for the contract you deserve? There are many ways to get involved:

1. Sign up to attend negotiations! Keep an eye out for opportunities to sign up. If you’re really keen, contact mail@agsem-aeedem.ca indicating your interest! 
2. Become a delegate for your department! Delegates do important work understanding the working conditions in each department and provide a crucial link between the workers and their union. Contact cd.mobilization@agsem-aeedem.ca if interested! Typically a few hours of work per month.
3. Join the Unit 3 Bargaining Support Committee! Contact mail@agsem-aeedem.ca for more information. Typically a few hours of work per week.

If you’re a TA, Unit 3’s first contract matters to you, too! With rampant budget cuts expected in the coming year, some departments may opt to convert TA positions into Unit 3 positions which may be paid substantially less. The working conditions of this unit could be your working conditions in the very near future. This fight is your fight, too!

Love and solidarity, 

Your newly-elected Unit 3 Bargaining & Bargaining Support committees