First faculty strike in McGill history: AMPL demands that the University negotiate in good faith

MONTRÉAL, Feb. 12, 2024 /CNW/ - McGill professors will be on strike for the first time since the University's founding in 1821. Tuesday, February 13^th, the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL), will erect picket lines on campus. By their strike action, the members of the AMPL denounce the bad faith of the university at the bargaining table. McGill's strategy has been to drag out the process in an unreasonable manner and to deny the fundamental right of professors to collective bargaining. The Fédération québécoise des professeures et des professeurs d'université (FQPPU) invites its member unions and associations to support their colleagues at McGill, whether on site or in their communications. "It is time for McGill University to start working together with its professors, and not against them," says FQPPU president Madeleine Pastinelli.

In a press release published last Friday, the AMPL details the behaviour at the origin of the dispute. Despite the intervention of a government-appointed conciliator, the University explicitly refuses to meet with the bargaining team on a regular basis, arrives at the meetings unprepared and strives to slow down the process at every turn. On numerous occasions in the discussions, the administration asked that the collective agreement simply refer to the University's policies, thus granting itself the right to unilaterally modify the working conditions of its professors - which amounts to, for all practical purposes, to denying the very idea of collective bargaining. Finally, the University continues to challenge in court the right of association of members of the Faculty of Law, even though their right to bargain was unequivocally recognized by the Tribunal administratif du travail, which certified the AMPD.

This AMPD negotiations are of capital importance. The Association represents the first professors' union at McGill University and the limits on the discretionary power of the administration it will obtain through bargaining will pave the way for improving conditions for the entire university community. In this regard, resorting to a strike appears to be the only means available to the AMPD at this stage. "We understand that the strike affects our students," laments AMPD president Evan Fox-Decent. "But what is at stake is the need to resolve basic working conditions, including a guarantee of a minimum number of professors on the Faculty in order to maintain an adequate student-professor ratio given the recent hiring freeze and discussion of increase enrolment levels. The conditions of our students' education are at stake."

Since 2022, AMPL is the association of tenured and tenure-track professors from McGill's Faculty of Law.

SOURCE Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d'université

Émile Bordeleau-Pitre, conseiller aux communications, 514-692-3643, [email protected]