MONTREAL, Aug. 26,
2024 /CNW/ - McGill
University today forced its law professors back on strike.
After promising for over three months to meet with the Association
of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL), McGill senior administrators
reneged, refusing to engage in good-faith negotiations with its
first faculty union.
The distance between the union's and McGill's bargaining
positions is not major and could be addressed through a few days of
solid negotiations. Nevertheless, McGill refuses to negotiate.
Instead, McGill is seeking to decertify AMPL and is fighting off
two other faculty unions, the Association of McGill Professors of
Education, and the Association of McGill Professors of the Faculty
of Arts.
McGill is delaying settlement of a collective agreement in order
to use its own refusal to bargain as a reason not to have a union.
It has asked for binding arbitration but, while arbitration may be
useful for salary disputes, it is not useful to protect faculty
interests in designing and implementing McGill Law's world class program. "Our issues
have to do with whether faculty – the experts in their fields –
should decide what an academic program should contain or
administrators who are far away from teaching," said Kirsten Anker, a McGill
Law professor and Vice-President of AMPL.
"The lesson that McGill has pounded into us," noted Richard Janda, a McGill
Law professor and Secretary of AMPL, "is that unless we are
prepared – against our training and desires – to put student
education at risk, McGill will not respond. It is shameful that
McGill is so cavalier with students' wellbeing and education in
direct contradiction to its claims of advancing education."
Students are required by McGill to pay their school fees by
August 30. "Many of us have moved
from far away, left our jobs, and signed leases and are now being
asked to pay school fees for a term that may not occur. It is
shocking that McGill would choose not to attend negotiations,
despite knowing how much students have invested, both
professionally and financially, to be part of this institution,"
stated Kate Pundyk, an incoming
McGill law student relocating from England.
SOURCE Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL)