Bargaining Update #8 & #9
The AMUSE bargaining team met in person with McGill again on July 6th, and remotely on July 23rd.
July 6th update:
On July 6th, we were originally slated to meet with McGill from 9am-4pm, however, the Employer requested that we postpone this to 12:30 pm as they weren’t ready by 9am.
We made a small amount of progress on Article 9 General Provisions in regards to the contents of our monthly memberlists. While the Employer did not want to budge on providing info on gender, they were looking into providing student and work study status with their IT systems department and said they would get back to us.
The Employer tabled their counter proposal to Article 37 (Technological Change), where they did not budge on expanding it to include Organizational Change or provisions about AI, which AMUSE members have made clear they want more transparency and security about AI in their workplaces.
They also tabled a counter proposal to Articles 14, 15 and 16 regarding disciplinary measures and investigatory procedures, as well as administrative measures and dismissal. They did not accept our demands. Our goal with our demands is to create clear procedures for both us and the management side, and to also give clarity for our members. The bargaining team is working diligently to create stability for the casual non-academic workers at McGill, and these articles are aimed to help improve this.
The Employer tabled a counter proposal to Article 17 (Employee files) with some slightly modified language. We accepted their proposal and will be signing next time we have negotiations in person. The changes give a timeframe to provide employee files to employees, and essentially codifies the practices that already exist.
Finally, we brought forward some concerns the bargaining team has about the length of time it’s been taking to get through articles and receive their responses, but they assured us they don’t want to delay and instead said that the Union’s proposals are too extensive in response.
We would like members to know that while there are quite a few changes in our demands, they are simply encompassing standards other unions are afforded, but also are a reflection to the feedback and priorities we heard from members. Casual work, transparency, and stability are not mutually exclusive.
July 23rd update:
The meeting was exceptionally held online in order to accommodate some of our current bargaining team’s summer availability. Our session was from 9am-4pm, during which we discussed unresolved articles from the last session.
AMUSE continued to advocate for AI and Organizational Change inclusions into Article 37 (Technological Changes). However, the Employer’s position has not changed, despite the team’s efforts to completely reword the article based on the feedback and concerns they provided to us. Some of the Employer’s concerns raised were, that it was a lot of language, and that the University has been publishing guidelines as per the AI section of their IT website: https://www.mcgill.ca/it/ai . Since it is clear that the University intends to use AI in the workplace, it’s a strong prerogative, and based on member feedback, that this also needs to be reflected in our own collective agreement.
The AMUSE bargaining team also went into further detail about Article 15 (Administrative Dismissals), and continued pressing for stronger protections and measures for AMUSE members, such as including protections when administrative measures are used, and requiring cause and proof for administrative dismissal. The Employer is maintaining their position that they want to preserve management’s discretion and declined to expand this article.
Articles 12 & 13 regarding the Grievance Procedure were subsequently introduced and discussed. We proposed several improvements that give members more time to file grievances, given the turnover of the union and its members, and that many of our members are often first-time union members and workers. We want to help reduce administrative barriers for both parties and clarify our deadlines to reflect the downtime at McGill (such as the holiday period). They were receptive, however they wanted to consult with Labour Relations before responding.
AMUSE also raised some concerns regarding our generic job titles that don’t provide enough information for the union to properly represent members or identify workplace issues. The Employer stated that they can’t centrally access detailed job descriptions because they are managed on a local level. We intend to discuss this further; as a Union with so many unique jobs and members, it is incredibly important that we know what jobs members are doing, and the suggestion from the Employer to reach out to each of our 1300-1700 members is unacceptable, but also very odd and unusual in general to put the onus onto a union to find out what types of jobs members are doing.
Ultimately, this round of bargaining focused on improving due process for members. Something you should be afforded as a worker no matter where your place of work is. Our demands are centered on fairness, justice and are built in a way that accommodates the unique needs of AMUSE members.
We are attempting to add more bargaining dates into our calendar, as these discussions and movement speed are taking longer than expected and we will keep you all updated!
AMUSE had a total of 2 member observers at this session. It was a great way to show a level of bargaining transparency, and if you’re an AMUSE member, you can attend them too! It all starts with a conversation with us. We will be posting more details soon about this process, but it all starts with a simple meeting with someone from your bargaining team! Reach out to Tricia, our staffer, at outreach@amusepsac.org and she will be happy to explain steps A-Z over a phone call or coffee. Our treat!
