McGill teaching assistants protest low pay and shabby working conditions

MONTREAL - McGill's 2,000 teaching assistants are protesting the University's stubborn refusal to reduce the huge salary gaps they face compared to pay for TAs at other elite research universities in Canada. They will demonstrate at the school's Roddick Gates, at Sherbrooke and McGill College in downtown Montreal, at 4 pm to express their growing anger over the university's stonewalling during six months of contract negotiations.

Members of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM -CSN) have worked without a collective agreement since last summer. They are asking for an immediate salary adjustment that would put pay at the average for teaching assistants at Canada's leading research universities, a raise of roughly $6 an hour.

"It's about respect and recognition for professionals who play a vital role in the university community," said AGSEM President Salim Ali. "Our demands are modest and reasonable considering that we would need a raise of more than $12 per hour, or 55 per cent, to match TA pay at the University of Ottawa or the University of Toronto."

The total amount in salaries paid to McGill's graduate students is less than 1 per cent of the university's budget, and would remain so even if it agreed to AGSEM's salary demands.

McGill's TAs, who currently earn $22.24 per hour but are only paid for an average of 12 hours each week, are also fighting to improve services to the student body.

Despite important teaching and grading responsibilities, for instance, McGill provides insufficient private office space for TAs to meet students to discuss their academic challenges in a confidential setting, much less grade papers or exams in an appropriate environment.

As well, AGSEM deplores a total lack of paid training, and is demanding the university raise the quality of undergraduate education by implementing a thorough training program. Finally, class sizes in courses where TAs grade essays and lead discussion groups need to be capped: in some departments TAs are responsible for more than 70 students each semester.

AGSEM Vice-President Natalie Kouri-Towe is disappointed that McGill appears to have forgotten the confrontation during the last round of negotiations, which lasted two years and culminated in a month-long strike.

"We really expected that this time the university would come to the table in good faith and come to an amicable settlement," said Kouri-Towe. "But we have spent six months in negotiations and we are barely any closer to an agreement than when we started."