The SSMU would like to extend it’s support for the 1-day strike AGSEM is organizing on the 16th of April. As the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill, AGSEM represents all TAs on campus and is currently supporting TAs in their ongoing negotiations with the administration. So TAs are on strike!
What does this mean for me? On April 16th, the first day of exams, McGill’s TAs will be on strike as part of ongoing efforts to get an equitable collective agreement. AGSEM, the union representing TAs, has been in bargaining with McGill since last summer. Their principal demands include a fair wage increase and the indexation of TA hours to undergraduate enrollment; in response, McGill has offered what amounts to a pay cut. Who are TAs, and why do we need them? McGill’s roughly 2000 Teaching Assistants lead conferences, hold office hours, conduct labs, grade assignments, give lectures, provide one-on-one advice and help, and support professors in their teaching in all sorts of way. TAships provide graduate students with a source of funding, while making large classes accessible, and helping professors to balance their teaching and research commitments. AUS and SSMU have both endorsed a motion of support for TAs and their demand for appropriate TA:student ratios. In addition, AGSEM is also lobbying for better protections from harassment and discrimination.
How can I help? Come by the picket lines on April 16th with a smile, pick up a “TAs are my FAVES” sticker to put on your final assignments, or join the student-worker demonstration against precarity and austerity at 3pm at the Roddick Gates. Will this affect my ability to graduate? No. Although TAs will not be working on the day of the strike, it is extremely unlikely that a single day strike would impact grades being handed in, or anything else related to graduation. I have an exam on the 16th, what do I do? At this point, McGill has not rescheduled or moved exams. As a show of solidarity, consider putting a supportive sticker on your exam paper. If you feel uncomfortable at any time during your exam, speak to your invigilator or go to service point.
Check out https://www.facebook.com/events/1431350757165100/ for more info on their 1-day strike and https://www.facebook.com/pages/AGSEM/718543241493989?fref=ts for more general info.
