Thousands of students from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) will ultimately not be on an indefinite general strike. This was to be triggered Wednesday morning in support of teaching interns who were considered penalized for having gone on strike. But the student associations backtracked at the last minute after believing they had won their case.
“We are happy and happy to announce that all our mobilization efforts towards an Unlimited General Strike have borne fruit! There will therefore be no strike tomorrow, ”we can read in a message sent Tuesday early evening by the Student Faculty Association of Human Sciences (AFESH-UQAM). “This is a major gain for the defense of the student movement’s right to strike, which will still be able to affirm loud and clear that a session has never been or will be canceled by the strike”, we add.
For the past week, four faculty student associations in the humanities, political science and law, arts and language and communication have obtained unlimited or renewable general strike mandates. It was the terms of return to class for teaching students, who went on strike for five weeks this fall, which had initiated this protest movement. Future teachers who missed internship days were at risk of obtaining an Abandonment mention, which the student associations consider as a punitive measure.
Since then, UQAM has been working to find solutions and a special meeting of the Commission des études was held on November 28. “We went to the end of what we could do to maintain the quality of the programs and the training we offer,” explains the To have to Jean Bélanger, Dean of the Faculty of Education Sciences. We have extended the session for a week to allow students to take up their lost internship days, and we have made arrangements with the milieus so that this can be done”.
“For a small minority, we do not see how we can make them complete their internship during the current term,” he continues. And for these people, there is a special measure that has been considered, which is a postponement for another period up to December 2023”. This situation only affects about ten trainees out of 833.
The dean met with students on Tuesday and signed a letter addressed to representatives of the Association of Students of the Faculty of Educational Sciences (ADEESE-UQAM), something the faculty associations were asking for. In it, it is indicated that no safe withdrawal will be awarded to students and that only those who wish can be awarded a safe withdrawal.
Danaë Simard, in charge of communications and mobilization at ADEESE, explains to the To have to that the association is satisfied with the outcome.
“We are very happy and happy that we were able to remove the mentions of abandonments, she says. For internships, we will have recovery possibilities. So far, it’s settled.”
A strike vote on this issue was defeated at a general meeting of ADEESE on 23 November. The modular student associations of the program, such as those for the teaching of English as a second language or in special education, were to hold special general assemblies this week.
But votes on the strike will ultimately not take place. “There seems to be a step backwards that is being taken, underlines Danaë Simard. It’s still a relief, we will be able to finish our session knowing that our right to strike will be respected in the future. We’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish.”