Law professors at McGill University will hold a one-day strike on Tuesday, at a time when negotiations with their employer to improve their working conditions are stalling. A means of pressure which could be renewed in the coming days, which would lead to the cancellation of numerous courses for the students concerned.
Last December, the McGill Association of Law Professors (AMPD) informed McGill University that its members had adopted a mandate providing for a maximum of five days of strike, in the context where the young union is trying to to negotiate the conditions of its first collective agreement. Two months later, on Tuesday, a first day of strike by its member professors will take place, leading to the lifting of pickets around the university campus, in the city center, and the cancellation of several courses.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience the AMPD strike action may cause to members of the community. We hope that the strike will take place with mutual respect and with a view to a rapid resumption of negotiations and usual activities,” said the director of labor and employee relations at McGill University on Monday. , Francis Desjardins, in a statement posted online on the establishment’s website. Mr. Desjardins said he hoped that the repercussions of this means of pressure on staff and students “will be minimal”.
“We regret that the work stoppage, which will affect all our teaching, research and administrative tasks, will inevitably have consequences for our students. But we have come to the conclusion that without a strike, the university will not negotiate in good faith,” the AMPD wrote on its website.
In the fall of 2022, AMPD became the first professors’ union at McGill University, following a decision rendered by the Administrative Labor Tribunal. The association is now trying to obtain a first collective agreement in order to improve its working conditions. As part of its negotiations with the employer, the union is demanding in particular that its members have to deal individually with a smaller number of students, although the establishment has started a freeze in recent months. his hiring due to his precarious financial situation. The AMPD also campaigns for better salary conditions and more attractive social benefits.
“It is time for McGill University to start working in concert with its professors, and not against them,” declared Monday in a press release the Fédération québécoise des professores et professors d’Université (FQPPU), which describes this strike as a “first” in the history of McGill, founded in 1821. The FQPPU also deplores that McGill University “continues to contest in court the right of association of the faculty of the Faculty of Law, while this right has yet been unequivocally recognized by the Administrative Labor Tribunal” more than a year ago.
In the communication it posted online, the AMPD deplores that McGill University “regularly” refuses to meet with its negotiating team, which ensures that talks move “at a snail’s pace.”
“The strike affects your education. We understand it. But what is at stake is the need to resolve basic working conditions, the association continues. The conditions of your education are at stake and we firmly believe that the interests of students and faculty are aligned. »
The AMPD represents around fifty professors from McGill University.