UQAM lecturers on strike Monday, unless an agreement is reached by then
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Posted January 30, 2025 5:05 pm.
UQAM’s 2,100 lecturers have announced a strike will be starting Monday morning, unless a settlement is reached between the parties by then.
Last-minute negotiations are scheduled to take place over the weekend to try to avoid a strike, which would last indefinitely, said Olivier Aubry, president of the Syndicat des professeures et professeurs enseignants de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, in an interview on Thursday.
“There will be negotiations this weekend,” said Aubry. “We, the union, will be making a global offer on Saturday morning. And we hope to have an agreement as soon as possible before Monday morning. But, to have an agreement, UQAM must also put more than what is currently on the table and meet our demands.”
Specifically, the aim is not to renegotiate the entire collective agreement, but only those aspects that relate to online teaching. That was the subject of a letter of understanding between the parties. The entire collective agreement had already been renewed, and remains in force until Dec. 31.
Aubry explains that his members are demanding, for example, monetary compensation for online teaching. “We want compensation for the extra workload associated with online teaching. Before the pandemic, it was clear from the studies that online teaching had an overload of around 30 per cent compared with face-to-face courses,” he argued.
The union also has demands regarding the size of online course groups.
“We are well aware of the union’s demands, having held 22 negotiation sessions to date, 13 of which were attended by a Ministry of Labour conciliator. UQAM management has tabled numerous global offers since the spring of 2024,” the university’s management said.
The parties do not agree on the extent of the online teaching phenomenon within the institution.
The union maintains that “nearly 25 per cent of the institution’s courses and over 60 per cent of courses in certain departments are delivered online”.
Management paints an entirely different picture. “According to our most recent data (2023-2024), 11 per cent of courses at UQAM are delivered entirely by distance learning. The remaining courses are offered in hybrid or co-modal mode, or for the vast majority of them (74 per cent), in person.”
“Under our regulations, program committees, made up of faculty and students, determine the modality of courses (face-to-face, distance, co-modal or hybrid), in collaboration with the departments concerned. This collegial mechanism is one of UQAM’s core values,” says management.
The union, which is part of the CSN-affiliated Fédération nationale des enseignants(e)s du Québec, represents lecturers and internship supervisors.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews