Over the next four years these promises by McGill did not materialise and in 1980, faced with increasing student/TA ratios and no salary increases, the MTAA considered unionising and threatened to join the already-striking maintenance workers. The Senate Ad Hoc Committee was reconvened and reached agreement with the MTAA concerning working conditions including TA/student ratios, workload as well as finally paying the cost-of-living increase promised in 1975.

By 1986, working conditions had once again worsened and since the MTAA was not a union, McGill was not obligated to respect its promises on workload and salary indexation. The PGSS organised a survey which found huge disparities in the treatment of TAs across campus and concluded that "the lessons of our history are obvious: unless we organise and maintain constant vigilance over our employers we shall not even succeed in attempts to preserve our existing advances" (the Schulze Report, 1986). Despite recommending that PGSS take a leading role in resolving TA grievances, little progress was made until October1990 when a general meeting of TAs was organised. After reviewing the working conditions and salaries of TAs at other Canadian universities and surveying McGill's TAs, it was agreed that the only way to improve the situation at McGill was to form a union.

Certification process - TAs at McGill in the '90's

After interviewing several unions, it was decided to affiliate with the Féderation Nationale des Enseignantes / Enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ) / Confederation des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN). After a successful application to the Labour Commission in order to become the official bargaining agent for McGill's TAs, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill was formed on February 12th, 1992. During the card-signing process that followed, between 35% and 50% of currently employed TAs signed union cards . A referendum was held over three days in November and December 1992 and since an absolute majority of eligible TAs voted in favour, the certification was granted by the Labour Commission on January 11th, 1993. AGSEM was therefore empowered to negotiate on behalf of all graduate students employed as Teaching Assistants and Lab Demonstrators on the downtown and Macdonald campuses except those paid from "special" (research) funds.

On February 17th, 1993 the inaugural annual general assembly approved the AGSEM constitution and elected the first Co-ordinating and Bargaining Committees.

History of negotiations

Between February 1993 and May 5th, 1994, the AGSEM Bargaining Committee wrote the proposed first collective agreement. The AGSEM position was arrived at after investigation of collective agreements for other Canadian Teaching Assistants, along with research into the existing working conditions for TAs at McGill. It was ratified by AGSEM members at a series of general assemblies in the Fall and Winter of 1993-94.

These proposals were submitted to the McGill administration on May 5th, 1994. From that date until March 10th, 1995, 14 negotiation meetings were held with McGill. The AGSEM Bargaining Committee was led by Guy Beaulieu, our counsellor from the FNEEQ-CSN who has many years of negotiating with universities. In frustration at the refusal of McGill to submit any kind of salary proposals, and their rejection of many articles that are standard at other Canadian universities, AGSEM filed for conciliation in March 1995.

One of the reasons why these first negotiations have taken so long is precisely because we were asking for parity with other TA unions across the country. Some of these unions have existed for over 20 years and have therefore been through several rounds of negotiations. Unfortunately, in our quest to obtain what we believed McGill's TAs deserved, the AGSEM membership and Bargaining Committee set our sights too high. As a young union, we did not realise that McGill would try to use the negotiations to make huge budget cuts. Between 1994/95 and 1997/98, the TA budget fell by over 15% and we lost 100 TA positions—meanwhile undergraduate enrolment grew by over 10%, contributing to an increase in workload for the surviving TAs. McGill's first salary proposals (see below) would have contributed to a further 20% cut in the TA budget.

To put this draft collective agreement in perspective, it is helpful to remember the history of the negotiating process. The struggle to maintain and improve TA working conditions at McGill dates back to 1974 when the McGill Teaching Assistants Association (MTAA) was formed in the Faculty of Arts. This association prompted Senate to create an Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate the Employment of Graduate Students in a Teaching Capacity which determined in December 1975 that teaching assistantships (including lab. demonstratorships etc.) serve four main functions (Senate Document D5-37, 10th December 1975):

1. Providing a source of income for graduate students.
2. Enriching departmental intellectual Communities.
3. Maintaining, in an essential way, the educational program of the university.
4. Improving the teaching profession, especially at the college and university levels.

The report concluded (p.10) that "Teaching Assistants, by virtue of both their education and the many hours of preparation they must spend specifically in fulfilment of their jobs, are an integral part of the teaching staff at the University, a part which could not be eliminated without gravely prejudicing the quality of undergraduate instruction…" The Senate Committee unanimously recom-mended that Senate adopt several policies including:

A.2. That the workloads (including preparation time) of "full-time" Teaching Assistants be arranged so as not to require more than 12 hours per week.
A.4. That no graduate student be appointed to a fifth or subsequent year as a "full-time" Teaching Assistant without specific approval by the Dean of the concerned Faculty.
A.6. In addition we urge that members of Senate undertake to use their influence to ensure that the stipends of Teaching Assistants are at a level commensurate with the responsibilities under-taken by them, and competitive with similar positions at comparable Canadian universities, and to ensure, furthermore, that the salaries of Teaching Assistants are indexed or augmented, so as to increase as the cost-of-living increases, in manner comparable to the salaries of full-time staff. (emphasis added)

This last recommendation (A.6.) was passed by Senate on December 17th, 1975.

Unfortunately McGill failed to implement this Senate resolution which led the MTAA to accuse the university administration of bad faith and encourage over 115 TAs to withdraw their services (Montreal Star, Feb 4th, 1976; Montreal Gazette, Feb 4th, 1976). As a result of the 8-day unofficial strike (February 4th to 12th, 1976), the Faculty of Graduate Studies reached an agreement with MTAA which included a base salary of $3,750 per year and indexation of salaries according to cost-of-living in a manner comparable to other full-time staff.

It is worth noting that if McGill had kept its promises, inflation adjustment alone would mean that an Arts TA would_ currently be paid almost $11,000 per year instead of $6526.

Over the next four years these promises by McGill did not materialise and in 1980, faced with increasing student/TA ratios and no salary increases, the MTAA considered unionising and threatened to join the already-striking maintenance workers. The Senate Ad Hoc Committee was reconvened and reached agreement with the MTAA concerning working conditions including TA/student ratios, workload as well as finally paying the cost-of-living increase promised in 1975.

By 1986, working conditions had once again worsened and since the MTAA was not a union, McGill was not obligated to respect its promises on workload and salary indexation. The PGSS organised a survey which found huge disparities in the treatment of TAs across campus and concluded that "the lessons of our history are obvious: unless we organise and maintain constant vigilance over our employers we shall not even succeed in attempts to preserve our existing advances" (the Shulze Report, 1986). Despite recommending that PGSS take a leading role in resolving TA grievances, little progress was made until October1990 when a general meeting of TAs was organised. After reviewing the working conditions and salaries of TAs at other Canadian universities and surveying McGill's TAs, it was agreed that the only way to improve the situation at McGill was to form a union.

Certification process - TAs at McGill in the '90's

After interviewing several unions, it was decided to affiliate with the Féderation Nationale des Enseignantes / Enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ) / Confederation des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN). After a successful application to the Labour Commission in order to become the official bargaining agent for McGill's TAs, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill was formed on February 12th, 1992. During the card-signing process that followed, between 35% and 50% of currently employed TAs signed union cards . A referendum was held over three days in November and December 1992 and since an absolute majority of eligible TAs voted in favour, the certification was granted by the Labour Commission on January 11th, 1993. AGSEM was therefore empowered to negotiate on behalf of all graduate students employed as Teaching Assistants and Lab Demonstrators on the downtown and Macdonald campuses except those paid from "special" (research) funds.

On February 17th, 1993 the inaugural annual general assembly approved the AGSEM constitution and elected the first Co-ordinating and Bargaining Committees.

History of negotiations

Between February 1993 and May 5th, 1994, the AGSEM Bargaining Committee wrote the proposed first collective agreement. The AGSEM position was arrived at after investigation of collective agreements for other Canadian Teaching Assistants, along with research into the existing working conditions for TAs at McGill. It was ratified by AGSEM members at a series of general assemblies in the Fall and Winter of 1993-94.

These proposals were submitted to the McGill administration on May 5th, 1994. From that date until March 10th, 1995, 14 negotiation meetings were held with McGill. The AGSEM Bargaining Committee was led by Guy Beaulieu, our counsellor from the FNEEQ-CSN who has many years of negotiating with universities. In frustration at the refusal of McGill to submit any kind of salary proposals, and their rejection of many articles that are standard at other Canadian universities, AGSEM filed for conciliation in March 1995.

One of the reasons why these first negotiations have taken so long is precisely because we were asking for parity with other TA unions across the country. Some of these unions have existed for over 20 years and have therefore been through several rounds of negotiations. Unfortunately, in our quest to obtain what we believed McGill's TAs deserved, the AGSEM membership and Bargaining Committee set our sights too high. As a young union, we did not realise that McGill would try to use the negotiations to make huge budget cuts. Between 1994/95 and 1997/98, the TA budget fell by over 15% and we lost 100 TA positions—meanwhile undergraduate enrolment grew by over 10%, contributing to an increase in workload for the surviving TAs. McGill's first salary proposals (see below) would have contributed to a further 20% cut in the TA budget.

Conciliation

The first meeting with the Conciliator, Mme. Therrien was held on 26 May 1995 and initially there seemed to be progress. By Christmas 1995 the Bargaining Committee realised that McGill was stalling for time by refusing to submit any salary proposals and the decision was made to ask the membership for a strike mandate. On February 8th, 1996 during a well-¬attended general assembly, 65% of those present voted in favour of a one-day strike. Media interest in our strike vote was intense. With the assistance of the CSN, our press release was distributed throughout Quebec and generated print articles in The Gazette, La Presse and Le Devoir as well as radio interviews with the CBC and others. Articles were also printed in the Queen's University student paper and the situation at McGill was distributed world-wide via the Internet.

On March 6th, 1996 McGill finally submitted a global proposal including a salary position of $10 to $15/hour which would mean wage cuts to over 400 Teaching Assistants. The Bargaining Committee consequently recommended that a strike be held on March 19th, 1996 the first ever legal strike by academic staff at McGill. The media coverage was superb - articles in The Gazette, La Presse, Le Devoir, The McGill Daily & Daily Francais, The Times Higher Education Supplement (read by academics the world over!) on and after the day of the strike; several television interviews on CBC, Pulse, Television Quatre Saisons; radio interviews on CBC, CJAD, CQIC and others. The response from the media was very positive and since McGill generally avoided the press, the message was predominantly from the union's perspective.

On April 2nd, 1996 a further one-day strike mandate was approved at a general assembly for the Fall1996 semester in case negotiations did not progress over the summer. The Bargaining Committee held a further 35 meetings with McGill and the conciliator until October 23rd, 1996 at which time AGSEM requested that an arbitrator be appointed. During informal discussions, we lowered our salary proposal from $28.75/hour to $20.77/hour and suggested that it be phased in over three years but McGill insisted that the maximum future wage on campus was $16.10/hour. Even this was only after 5 years and given the savings from cutting wages to 40% of TAs, McGill would save money. Since the last salary increase for TAs was in 1988, we were unable to make any further progress.

In an effort to force McGill to settle the contract and so avoid the long arbitration process, the Bargaining Committee asked for a general strike mandate. At a General Assembly on November 27th, 1996, AGSEM members narrowly voted against a motion for an immediate unlimited general strike (108 for, 111 against, 1 spoiled ballot) - many members felt unable to bear the financial burden of a strike, preferring to wait for arbitration.

Arbitration

Despite the best efforts of the Bargaining Committee and our FNEEQ-CSN Counsellor, the process of appointing an arbitrator took over four months. After meeting once in front of the government-appointed arbitrator, M. Real Mireault, on April 22nd, 1997, we met with McGill 13 times, mostly without the arbitrator present because it was felt that more progress could be made in this less formal setting. To our surprise there seemed to be a change in attitude of the McGill negotiators over the summer and progress was made on some less contentious issues. However on the critical issue of salaries we remained far apart. In an effort to resolve this issue, we formally reduced our original demand of $28.75/ hour (approximately the average wage for Canadian TAs) to $20.77 / hour - our previous informal wage reduction (during Conciliation) had been withdrawn since McGill had returned to its original $10 to $15/hour position at the start of Arbitration. This wage reduction involved accepting McGill's proposed maximum workload of 180 hours per term and giving up our attempt to lower the average weekly workload to 10 hours. Unfortunately McGill continued to insist on pay cuts to many TAs, specifically all 200 in Arts plus Religious Studies and several Science departments.

By November 1997 we had started making arguments to the Arbitrator in support of our salary position and McGill had raised their maximum wage to $17/hour from $16.10. Although we were still divided we felt some hope and then a critical blow was struck - M. Mireault was offered a position with the Ministry of Labour and was unable to continue to act as arbitrator. A full year after losing the general strike vote, we were back to the beginning of arbitration again.

As we were waiting for the new arbitrator to be appointed, McGill appeared to finally decide that four and a half years of negotiations was too long and began to make their first serious salary offers. Since the arbitration process looked likely to take an additional year, and there appeared to be a genuine desire for a settlement, the Bargaining Committee sat down with McGill in January 1998 for a series of meetings without an arbitrator and made some hard decisions about what would be acceptable to our members.

Draft Settlement

We established certain core principles including at least a minimal salary increase for all TAs, and a move towards equity on campus over the three years of a contract. We accepted that given McGill's attitude, we would not be able obtain many of our outstanding proposals, particularly with respect to salary, TA/student ratios, and protection from discrimination and harassment. We also weighed the likely outcome of arbitration against the length of time it would take. Arbitration experts from the CSN told us that while an arbitrator was unlikely to lower any existing salaries, we could expect little or no increase for a number of reasons:

Firstly, although the average TA wage in the rest of Canada is $27 to $30/hour, labour law is a provincial matter and so the arbitrator would only look at TA wages from Quebec. Since no other TAs are unionised, we would be compared with other poorly paid employees - the average Quebec TA wage is around $16/hour while at McGill it is around $15.50/hour.

Secondly, in making a decision, the arbitrator would compare TA salaries with those of other employees at McGill, particularly other academic staff. The average salary for McGill professors is below the Quebec average and so McGill would argue that the TA salary should remain below the Quebec average. This would affect anyone being paid over $16/hour (300 TAs in Arts, Science, Religious Studies, etc.).

Thirdly, despite the lack of salary increases for TAs since 1988 while all other staff have received some increase (scale and/or merit), the arbitrator would only consider the situation since 1993 when AGSEM was certified. This would hurt us since McGill has frozen salaries for the non-academic staff (represented by MUNACA) since 1992. Interestingly, MUNACA is also in arbitration with McGill after frustrating attempts at negotiating their first collective agreement.

Finally, we knew that McGill would call as many witnesses as possible to any arbitration hearing thus delaying any collective agreement settlement for at least six to twelve months.

The Bargaining Committee spent January and February 1998 in intense negotiations with McGill in an effort to get the best possible settlement that avoided the arbitrator imposing a decision. We believe that the successes we have made with regard to workload, grievances, discipline and other "normative" articles lay the foundation for a strong collective agreement both now and in the future. By ratifying this collective agreement on March 5th, most TAs at McGill will see an immediate improvement in their working conditions - if you feel you are being over-worked or otherwise exploited, you will be able to file grievances. Until this collective agreement is signed, your ability to protect yourself from overwork is exceedingly limited. We have successfully persuaded McGill that the collective agreement should be back¬dated to January 1st, 1998 which means protection starts immediately.

Grievances
If you feel any of the rights afforded to you by the collective agreement are not being respected, the Union's Grievance Officers can help you file grievances - typical grievances include over-work, not being paid on time, being disciplined without just cause or explanation.

Workload issues
The details of the over-work protection are laid out in the accompanying document but in summary it is very simple - McGill must pay you for every hour that you work. Many TAs in Arts currently work 220 hours per term but are paid only for 180 hours - under this collective agreement you would be able to apply for those extra 40 hours of overtime to be paid at your regular hourly rate, providing you tell your Course Supervisor as soon as you think you will exceed your contracted hours. In the Faculty of Arts that would mean an extra 720 dollars. This overtime payment is not guaranteed since McGill has the option to appoint extra TAs but for the first time all professors will have to think carefully about how much work they expect from their TAs. We strongly encourage all TAs to fill out the Workload Forms available from AGSEM.

Salary increases
We have achieved salary increases for most TAs at McGill as is explained in the accompanying document. McGill absolutely refused to allow any increase in the main wage scale of $18.13/hour (currently received by Arts and some others). We were able to negotiate a lump-sum payment of 2% each year for most of these higher paid TAs (for an effective wage of $18.49/hour). TAs currently paid less than $18.13/hour will see their wages rise in each of the next three and a half years. While we did not obtain true compensation for the ten year salary freeze, remember that McGill's original proposal was for a reduction in most TAs wages to $10 or $15/hour - instead by the end of this first contract (2000/01 Academic Year), wages across campus will range from $14.50 to $18.49/hour.

Unfortunately, a few departments (40 TAs) will see TA wages cut by this agreement - individual TAs employed in 1997/98 will retain their existing salaries until they leave the Priority Pool.

We have also made it very clear that TAs must be paid when they start working and not have to wait 6-8 weeks for their first pay-cheques. If McGill does not pay you within your first month, you can file a grievance.

Tuition fee waivers
After considerable argument, we persuaded McGill to include a "grandparenting" clause so that individual TAs who received tuition fee waivers in the 1997/98 Academic Year - primarily in the Faculty of Arts - will continue to receive these waivers until they leave the Priority Pool. Writing this principle into the collective agreement should help us to extend this employment benefit to all TAs at McGill in the future.

Priority Pool
The Priority Pool provides a limited guarantee of TAships once you have received your first position. It used to be standard procedure in the Faculty of Arts that you received two or three years of TA positions but this is no longer the case. We have improved and extended this Priority Pool to all faculties for three years as a PhD student (PhD 1 to 4) and two years for Masters students (MA/MSc/MEng 1 to 2).

Job postings, applications & appointments
A major complaint from TAs has been the arbitrary nature of TA appointments. In the future there will be specific dates by which the vast majority of positions must be posted. After a limited appli-cation period, appointments will be made in accordance with clearly laid out criteria. You will know whether you have a job in the Fall term by early May and for the Winter term by late November. This compares favourably with the current situation where you may not be told until after the term has started.

Severance Pay
Under the collective agreement, if McGill offers you a TAship and then withdraws it, they have to make every effort to find you another job that pays the same. If they can't find you one and the job was withdrawn due to insufficient enrolment or class cancellation, you will receive 2/15 of your salary as severance pay (over $400 in Arts); if the job was withdrawn for any other reason, McGill must pay you 2/5 of your salary. Right now McGill can withdraw an offered TA position and your only recourse is through the very slow process of the Labour Commission with little chance of a positive outcome.

Protection of TA work for graduate students
A major concern has been the increasing use of undergraduates and technicians to do work pre-viously undertaken by graduate student TAs. This practice will not be allowed to increase any fur-ther thus maximising the number of jobs available to graduate students.

Liberation
A critical part of having a collective agreement is to ensure that its provisions are enforced. For this we need a strong union Co-ordinating Committee who is able to commit the necessary time to serve the membership. During this first negotiations the CSN has very generously provided money to liberate bargaining committee members but this money has now stopped. McGill will pay the equi-valent of five TAships each year to help run the union in addition to money budgeted from the union dues. We have also secured $12,500 from McGill for the next round of negotiations which will start in early 2001.

A strong union has a large membership
Another important concession from McGill is that upon signing the collective agreement, all TAs automatically become members of AGSEM. Currently all TAs are members of the Bargaining Unit and so pay union dues, but must sign a union card to be a member of AGSEM and have voting privileges at union meetings. In the future, new TAs will sign a membership card at the same time as accepting their first TA position. TAs will retain the right to leave the union without jeopardising their TA position although they will still have to pay union dues.

Signing Bonus
Finally although McGill insisted on no immediate increase for many TAs, we did negotiate a $40 signing bonus for all TAs currently employed. This may seem a small amount per person but the total cost to McGill is over $30,000.

The second collective agreement

This first collective agreement will be in force from January 1st, 1998 to May 31st, 2001 ¬– negoti-ations for the second collective agreement will begin in early 2001. In the second round, McGill will know that if they do not propose a fair settlement, there is nothing to stop TAs from severely disrupt-ting the work of the university by going on unlimited general strike. In this first round of negoti-ations, McGill knew that they could ask an arbitrator to step in and end any strike if it began to dis-rupt their business too much. The power of the AGSEM membership to control future collective agreements will thus be greatly increased.

Imagine this first collective agreement as a structure that frames the working environment for Teach-ing Assistants. The draft document you are being asked to approve forms a strong foundation with sturdy walls that will protect future generations of TAs from the storms of budget cuts and unfair employers. The next round of negotiations will bring further gains - the carpets and paint on our col-lective agreement house.

March 5th, 1998 is one thousand four hundred (1400) days since we started negotiating with McGill. The time has come to settle these first negotiations for Teaching Assistants at McGill and begin to reap the benefits of being protected by a collective agreement.