MONTREAL, June 7, 2024 – After having declined to return to the bargaining table with its law professors for over six weeks, McGill senior administrators abruptly closed today’s one day of bargaining: the only one to which it had agreed in all the months of May, June, and July. The union remained at the table, willing to continue negotiations until a deal was struck.
“This is just the latest example of McGill senior administrators coming to the bargaining table with ears closed and engaging in sham bargaining,” said Richard Janda, Secretary and Bargaining Lead for the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL)/Association McGillienne de professeur.e.s de droit (AMPD). “McGill faces an inordinate number of crises at the same time: funding by the Quebec government, Indigenous Peoples worried about graves on McGill land, student protesters, and unions. Is this just a terrible coincidence or is there a problem at the very top at McGill?” asked Janda.
Six weeks ago, AMPL members went on strike because the McGill senior administration refused to engage in good faith collective bargaining. “The issues separating McGill and AMPL are few in number and the proposals advanced by the union are common across Quebec universities,” stated AMPL Vice-President, Kirsten Anker. “The senior administration’s refusal to negotiate – just 20 full and 2 half days in over 500 days (against a national average of only 265 days) – illustrates its view that only it has the knowledge, capacity and intelligence to know what is best,” she continued.
The senior administration displayed a similar attitude when negotiating the the Quebec government over tuition and French requirements. McGill accused the government, led by Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry, of being “emotional” and stated that the government would agree with McGill’s position if only “it makes the effort” to do so. Its arrogance failed, resulting in a 1/3 rise in tuition for out-of-province undergraduate students and a requirement that 80% of students demonstrate an intermediate French proficiency, something the senior administration stated is “academically not possible.”
In a legal dispute with the Mohawk Mothers (or Kahnistensera), who had asked McGill and the Societé Québecoise des Infrastructures (SQI) contractors to conduct archaeological work to preserve the remains of missing Indigenous children during their excavations of the Royal Victoria Hospital site, McGill senior administrators said to “trust McGill.” According to court filings by Kimberly Murray, the Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Burials, McGill’s conduct in “distorting and downplaying the available information” and in accusing the Mohawk Mothers of prolonging “the investigation to make more money” demonstrates not only “a lack of empathy” but reliance on “ancient racist stereotypes.”
The senior administration displayed the same arrogance and lack of understanding in its dealings with Pro-Palestinian student encampments on the McGill campus. When McGill asked the police to remove the protesters after just a few days, the police refused since the protesters were peaceful. When the police acted yesterday, they limited that intervention to the administrative building, not the encampment itself. McGill also unsuccessfully asked a court to issue an injunction against all protests on campus based on unstated security concerns. When the judge asked McGill to provide evidence of a security problem, it could not. Meanwhile, UQAM was able to negotiate a settlement with encampment organizers on its campus, as have US universities such as Brown, Northwestern, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
“McGill’s senior administrators demand compliance by the communities it serves–the Quebec government, Indigenous Peoples, student protesters, or unions–without real empathy or engagement,” observed AMPL President, Evan Fox-Decent. “Instead, it tells these communities that it knows best,” he concluded.
For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact: Kirsten Anker, kirsten.anker@gmail.com, 514-550-5544.
