The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) is the oldest Teaching Assistant Union in the province of Quebec. As a labour union, AGSEM represents graduate Teaching Assistants, Invigilators, and Course-Based Academic Casuals at McGill. AGSEM has bargained with the McGill administration to produce TA and Invigilator Collective Agreements, which are legal documents that protect student workers.
Recent NewsMcGill wants you to take a pay cut - Unit 3 Bargaining Newsletter #24
At our June 17th bargaining session, we presented our counterproposal on Article 11 (positions) and Article 15 (leaves). McGill presented their counterproposal on wages and union liberations. McGill’s wage offer includes massive pay cuts (up to 50%!) for many workers. While marginal gains would be made for those working at minimum wage (who would see a 5.64% raise), the majority of our union members would actually face a pay decrease with only a 1.
Unit 2 Bargaining Updates #7 - Some progress at the table, but the fight isn’t over
On Friday, 22nd May 2026, we held our seventh bargaining session with McGill as part of our efforts to win a better contract for invigilators. Our committee consists of Sneha Senthil (Invigilator, Enrolment Services), Maureen Nayebare (Invigilator, Enrolment Services), Andrews Baada (Invigilator, SAA), Ari Blondal (AGSEM President), and Guillaume Forest-Allard (our FNEEQ bargaining advisor). As reported in our previous newsletter, we had been awaiting McGill’s response to several union proposals. This session brought some movement.
Back-to-back bargaining sessions bring movement at the table: big wins in clarifying positions, article 13 signed! - Unit 3 Bargaining Updates #22 & 23
This update covers two closely spaced bargaining sessions, held on May 6th and May 11th, where discussions focused heavily on positions, workload protections, and leaves. Across both sessions, your Unit 3 bargaining committee continued pushing for clearer job definitions, stronger accountability mechanisms around workload, and explicit protections against excessive preparatory work, unclear job expectations, and the erosion of leave rights through vague external references to labour standards legislation. May 6, 2026 Following a verbal offer at the April 29 bargaining session, McGill formally provided the written version of the Article 11 (Positions).