McGill University TAs ‘not being taken seriously’: striking for better salaries and conditions

It’s the final stretch of the spring semester and 1,600 teaching assistants at Montreal’s McGill University embarked on an eight-week strike Monday. They took to the picket lines Tuesday. The dispute between the union and the university is over salaries and working conditions.

The group says they are being paid below average compared to other Canadian universities.

“[University of Toronto TAs just got a new contract], they’re now going to be making $51 per hour and we make $33 per hour, so we want a wage increase that makes us competitive with those other schools,” said Dallas Jokic, a TA and member of the bargaining committee for the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM).

The group also wants the hours they spend on courses to be linked to the number of students. This measure would guarantee them a certain number of hours.

“In many different departments, McGill is cutting the hours of TAs contracts, and this has a bad impact on TAs,” said Jokic. “It means we often get overworked and it also has a negative impact on our students.”

Undergraduate support

Laura Jahchan is a third-year bioengineering student at McGill University and says despite changes to her schedule, she and her classmates support the strike.

“TAs are a formal integral part of our education, and if they feel like they can’t do their work properly due to low wages or not enough time they have plenty of right to voice their concerns,” said Jahchan. 

She allegedly witnessed a professor giving a tutorial yesterday, to the dismay of some students. 

“Some students [told the professor], ‘you can’t do that… ‘it’s a strike and you need to respect that, you shouldn’t be giving the tutorial. Do not take the job from TAs,’” said Jahchan

Barry Eidlin, a McGill University sociology professor, wrote in an email to his colleagues earlier this month that the university’s plan is “a clear attempt to undermine the bargaining power.”   

“The act of doing our TAs’ work would amount to siding with the McGill administration against our own graduate students,” wrote Eidlin. “Most importantly, it will strain the bonds of trust that are the foundation of the advisor-advisee relationship.”

McGill University told City News in a statement: “McGill deeply values the contributions of teaching assistants and recognizes their right to labour action within the parameters of the law.  McGill looks forward to continuing discussions with the Union for the renewal of the collective agreement. The University is continuing its operations, prioritizing the measures necessary to ensure that students are not unduly affected by the labour action.”

Jokic says they’ve been negotiating with the University for a new contract since the beginning of the school year. The negotiations broke down after a “deal that [TAs] could accept” was rejected, according to Jokic. 

“Unfortunately they don’t seem to be taking negotiations very seriously,” he said. “McGill is one of the top schools in the country and we need a wage that reflects that.”