1,600 McGill University teaching assistants on strike Monday

The 1,600 teaching assistants at McGill University have announced they will be on strike starting Monday, as the final stretch of the university year begins.

Teaching assistants at the university voted 87.5 per cent in favour of an eight-week strike mandate last week.

The main point in dispute remains salaries, says Fanny Teissandier, teaching assistant in anthropology since fall 2023.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, she says the negotiations aim to reduce the disparity between the average salaries offered at McGill and those of other universities, which stand at $46.36 per hour.

“There is really a very, very big difference when we know that the salaries of teaching assistants (at McGill University) amount to $33.03,” Teissandier said.

Christine Gauthier, vice-president of the National Federation of Teachers of Quebec-CSN (FNEEQ-CSN), responded in a press release on Saturday.

“The negotiation was disappointing for the union because the negotiating committee showed flexibility and received very little in return from the university. The strike mandate is strong and our members will not back down until they have obtained a respectful salary offer,” she said.

Reached by email, McGill University said it hoped the strike would be short-lived and wanted to point out that “the contribution of teaching assistants is valuable.”

The workers also want the course hours allocated to them to be indexed in relation to the number of students, a measure which would guarantee them a certain number of hours.

“McGill is reducing the hours contracted to teaching assistants (which) endangers the pay of teaching assistants and also jeopardizes the quality of education that teaching assistants are capable of providing,” added Teissandier.

The negotiating committee is made up of three members of the Association of Graduate Student Employees of McGill (AÉÉDEM) and an advisor from the FNEEQ-CSN.

Negotiations regarding the renewal of the collective agreement for these workers began last September.

Starting Monday, a strike fund will be available to teaching assistants. If they participate in 20 hours of weekly strike activity, they will be able to obtain $350 per week, the majority being paid by the FNEEQ-CSN.

Repercussions for the student community

Teaching assistants are graduate students registered at McGill University who help and supervise students in their studies. They are responsible for correcting academic work, leading seminars, taking care of certain administrative tasks and responding to emails, in addition to meeting with students outside of class hours to provide advice on their work and their upcoming exams.

According to Teissandier, the strike could have repercussions on undergraduate students.

“These repercussions will really depend on the duration of the strike. Otherwise, indeed, undergraduate students could have difficulty obtaining their final grades for the courses in which they are currently registered,” she specified.

She hopes the university will not drag out the labor dispute until the end of the session.

By email, McGill University affirmed that it was continuing its activities and that it would do “what is necessary to minimize the repercussions of this strike on its student body.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews