On Jan. 14, about 20 TAs gathered at the Roddick Gates to stage a small protest during which they distributed information about their bargaining committee and called for negotiations with the university regarding their expired collective agreement to proceed.
"We held a small demo that was meant to show our support for negotiations," Kouri-Towe said. "The general message of the demo was to encourage effective negotiations and decision-making at the bargaining table. Last time TAs negotiated for a new collective agreement, it took over two years. It's been over six months now since our collective agreement expired, and we want to avoid going through another two-year [process]."
AGSEM has met with the university three times this month to advance negotiations. The group has largely focussed on the lack of office space for TAs, issues with TA supervisors who double as TA professors and unfair wages. Citing the TA salaries at University of Toronto and University of Ottawa of $35.11 and $34.46 respectively in comparison to McGill's TA salary of $22.24. AGSEM is taking issue with McGill's best offer thus far: $24.03 by 2011. TA salaries cost the university less than one per cent of its operating expenses.
Kouri-Towe said she hopes that AGSEM's recent activities will encourage a speedy and satisfactory resolution to the collective agreement debates.
"We're hoping that things like the Jan. 14 demo will encourage the university to move quickly at the bargaining table and work with us to achieve an even better collective agreement than the last one."
2008 Woodie Awards
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