Montreal, October 7, 2024 – Yesterday, the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL), the Association of McGill Professors of Education (AMPE), the Association of McGill Professors of the Faculty of Arts (AMPFA), and McGill University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that not only brings labour peace to McGill, but recognizes two additional faculty unions: AMPE and AMPFA.
Last week, after a strike of more than 13-weeks, AMPL and McGill entered into a preliminary agreement under which AMPL suspended its strike and McGill agreed to negotiate the end of its challenge to AMPL’s certification as a union. Yesterday’s MoU brings an end not only to McGill’s challenge, but to AMPL’s strike and the end of McGill’s efforts to block the certification of AMPE and AMPFA.
While McGill and AMPL still have additional negotiations to complete a full collective agreement, the MoU represents a new governance structure that gives voice to unionized faculty, working within a confederated structure.
“The MoU positions McGill to address the critical issues facing it: decreasing government funding, declining research dollars, francisation, and divisions due to local and global events,” stated McGill Law professor and AMPL President, Evan Fox-Decent. “We now have a common understanding and path forward to not only address those issues but to ensure that McGill thrives as a community.”
Under the MoU, McGill will drop its objections to the certification of the three unions by October 8 while AMPL will permanently end its strike by that same date. Negotiations will immediately begin under the auspices of the arbitrator, Jean Allard, appointed by Quebec’s Minister of Labour, to complete the collective agreement.
The MoU contemplates that the three unions will establish a confederation through which to negotiate common issues at the University. The unions have yet to fully work out the details of the confederation but have agreed to an overall structure that facilitates joint decision-making. Any additional McGill faculty unions will be invited to join the confederation.
