How The University Works

So I’m French Canadian by extraction, not very recently, but I’m pretty much related to everyone with my last name in North America. We spend every summer in the Laurentian foothills, a couple of hours from Ottawa, three from Montreal. (I have the heritage, but my spouse has the language skills.)

It’s far from a perfect culture, wracked with its own issues of racism and xenophobia, but one of the things we really like about residing in Quebec is the profoundly pro-social commitments: day care, health care, women’s rights and, especially, labor rights.

Even anglophone McGill benefits from the Quebec labor code. When the grads went on strike for smaller classes, office space, better teacher training and better pay yesterday, they’re protected by the toughest labor law in North America:

TAs have a legal right to strike and interfering with the impact of our work stoppage is a serious offense known as “scabbing”. It is prohibited by article 109.1 of the Quebec Labour Code. Regrettably, it seems that the university has instructed its professors and sessional instructors to ignore the law and perform the normal and usual tasks of the members of our bargaining unit. The university is not above the law: our rights are not diminished simply because we are hired as teaching assistants. The duties delegated to us remain our responsibilities, and they cannot be completed when a strike has been called.

AGSEM is collecting evidence of scabbing so that we may assert the rights of our members to the Minister of Labour. If you believe another university employee has been directed to or is currently completing work that is included under your contract, e-mail that evidence (syllabi, personal e-mails and correspondence, or completed workload forms) to myjobmywork [at] gmail.com.

Professors and sessionals should know that the university cannot require an employee to break the law. If you are being pressured to perform the work of your TAs or your pay has been threatened, please contact us. You should be aware that the Labour Code allows fines of up to $1,000 per day for both the employer AND the individual found to be scabbing for each day that the offense continues. Association of Graduate Employees Employed at McGill (AGSEM)

Now, that’s my people!

Recently:

• Happy Fourth?
• Poverty In Higher Ed
• What I’m Reading Now
• Meet the Trustees, Part 1: Trustees Behind Bars
• They’ll Be Watching You
• Maybe He Can’t
• Academic Labor Bookshelf
• Job Listing #666
• Psst! Forward this Link to Grad Students
• Don’t Miss COCAL VIII