Association of McGill Professors of Law on indefinite strike

The Association of McGill Professors of Law claims that after negotiating with the University for 18 months, McGill is refusing to unionize the new association and contesting their certifications before the court.

“Things have been going very slowly, it’s hard to get dates from them,” says Kirsten Anker, Associate Professor of Faculty of Law at McGill University.

“They are also taking very hardline positions for basically reasonable asks that we have, that any other faculty or university around the country would have,” she adds.

On Wednesday, 45 professors started an indefinite strike, with people flying in from across the country to join the picket line. The association wants to be able to adapt the existing regulations to their faculty and have a say in how they get changed, but the university isn’t on board they allege.

McGill told CityNews Wednesday that the university is continuing its operations as normal, “including making sure that law students can graduate in May as planned.” And that final exams and the submission of final assignments are proceeding.

On Thursday, the union said otherwise.

“Being strike we cannot work, and it’s interrupting the grading process, so that’s going to put pressure if the university does not come back to the table,” Anker says.

The next negotiation date is set for June 7.