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Our GA was held on April 5, 2013, in Leacock 232, and was attended by a large number of course lecturers who participated in shaping our union’s next steps regarding bargaining and budgeting.

Bargaining Update

The bargaining committee reported on the latest developments in the ongoing negotiations with the university’s administration. In the meetings with the administration that took place between November 2012 and March 2013, our bargaining team negotiated leaves, teaching tasks and requirements, among other issues. We signed on emergency, bereavement, jury, and marriage leave, and, very importantly, a medical leave that will ensure that we will be able to take 21 paid days when medically necessary.

Discussions on parental leaves have been suspended by our bargaining committee because McGill has recently modified its parental leave policy for academic staff, and has agreed to provide research employee groups with parental leave benefits of 20 weeks with an indemnity, which would cover the loss of pay during such leaves. Our bargaining committee stands firm in demanding that our members should benefit from the same kind of maternity and paternity leaves which the other teaching and research staff of McGill already enjoy.

At the time of our GA, our bargaining committee was also discussing teaching qualification requirements (TQRs) and teaching tasks, and these issues have been partially settled. The subject of seniority and course allocation is also currently on the table. You will be updated shortly on these issues. Additionally, in the near future, you will be invited to meet with our bargaining committee to discuss the state of negotiations.

Motions passed at our GA

Recently, McGill’s administration asked the bargaining committee to accept a salary freeze for the year 2013, which would bring to a halt the salary negotiations for the year 2013. Our BC and EC believe that the administration’s request is unreasonable, since our members were not promised an annual salary increase to begin with. This measure would actually limit our negotiating rights from the start. Therefore, after carefully deliberating on this issue, our members voted that the course lecturers and instructors unit of AGSEM reserve the right to continue negotiating a salary increase for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. In other words, we decided that the bargaining committee should continue to negotiate without accepting the salary freeze proposed.

Furthermore, given that the union’s finances are currently being verified by our affiliates CSN and FNEEQ, it was decided that we postpone budgetary discussions until after the verification. In order to facilitate the union’s ability to bargain, we voted that that the unit executive committee, including the bargaining committee, continue functioning with the financial provisions provided in the current budget until the next general assembly. The results of this verification will be communicated to the members as soon as they are obtained, and the executive and bargaining committee of the course lecturers and instructors’ unit will continue to function as usual until a new budget is approved. Our team will plan another general meeting in order to present and vote on a planned budget for the fiscal year 2013-2014, and, as mentioned above, to discuss the issues of seniority and course allocation.
 

The All-Units General Assembly

On April 25, an All-units General Assembly was held in the SSMU ballroom. This annual meeting regroups the three units of AGSEM: the teaching assistants and invigilators (units I and II) and the course lecturers and instructors (unit III). The purpose of this meeting is to address union-wide issues, such as the coordinating committee budget, constitutional amendments, union wide activity reports, that need the contribution and representation of the members of all three units.

At this meeting, an amendment to the constitution to change the union’s fiscal year from April 1- March 31 to March 1- February 28 was voted on and approved. Structural changes were also presented, as units I and II announced their consolidation into one unit. Furthermore, members were presented with the reports of the coordinating committee, the individual units, and the constitution committee. The latter was in fact the main point of discussion at the meeting, as the present structure of the union is deemed not financially viable, and structural changes can only be made through constitutional amendments. The committee presented its report on the various structural alternatives. Unfortunately, the assembly lost its quorum during the discussion, which means that this will have to be discussed and decided upon at our next AGA.

Thank you!

We thank those of you who attended and voiced your opinions at the course lecturers and instructors’ General Assembly and at the All-units Assembly. We hope that you will attend the upcoming course lecturers and instructors’ assembly, where we will ratify our budget and discuss the crucial issues of hiring priority and course attribution that we are currently negotiating. We know that it is difficult to make time for these meetings, especially during the summer semesters. However, it is important that we have an appropriate representation of course lecturers and instructors both at a unit level and at union-wide assemblies, especially when we are to discuss working conditions that will affect everyone in the bargaining unit. We encourage you to come out and make your voice heard, and are grateful for your presence and participation.
 
Best,
The Executive and Bargaining Committees of the Course Lecturers and Instructors Unit

If you happen to hear any suspicious talk about course cuts in your department, contact us immediately at mail@mcliu.ca.

More courses to be cut

It has recently been brought to our attention that the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (FAES) is planning to reduce its course offerings in a way that would target course lecturers and instructors. A memo circulating in the department seeks advice internally on which courses to eliminate. It does not, however, consult the possibly affected course lecturers, or their union representatives. AGSEM Unit III denounces that these measures continue to be implemented across the campus, and deplores the lack of transparency and discussion surrounding them.

We are currently arranging to meet with the course lecturers at FAES and Faculty of Arts to work together to ensure that course cuts do not go through.

For more details on this newest developments, see the recently published McGill Daily article on the subject. Also see our response to the Arts course cuts.