The struggle between McGill and MUNACA over pensions, wages, and compensation has just entered its fifth week. Since Sept. 1, the parties have not come close to reaching a settlement on the core issues. However, there have been two major developments in the last few weeks: McGill was taken to court over alleged use of scab labour and the university filed an injunction against MUNACA.

The Quebec Labour Board, or the CNT, investigated MUNACA’s claims that McGill engaged in the use of scab labour while MUNACA members have been on strike. The investigation found McGill guilty of 20 violations of sections of Quebec’s Working Code. The report is not legally binding; it is up to the union to bring the findings to the labour board. The board’s subsequent decision will determine the outcome of these claims. Last week, both parties went before the Quebec Labour Board and presented their cases; the board should reach a decision this week. The use of scab labour is illegal in Quebec, although there are cases in which employers may use other employees, such as managers, in place of striking workers in order to maintain functionality during a strike.

According to Jérôme Turcq, the Regional Executive Vice-Preident: Quebec of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the use of managers as replacement employees usually happens on a small scale. Turcq claims, however,  that McGill engaged in a level of scabbing that is unusual for employers.

“I’ll be honest, most employers don’t use scabs—this is not usual … I think they could easily prove 20 [cases of scabbing] now, probably 100 by the end of the process…” Turcq said, in an interview following a meeting held by MUNACA last Wednesday at the Palais de Congrès. “I have no doubt … that McGill has used scabs. If it would be an instace of one or two cases, I would be very careful of what I said; not with what the inspector has written … as a whole, there are at least 20 scabs  and McGill is just playing the game by denying it.”

In the past, Turcq said, other Quebec universities like Laval, University of Montreal, Concordia, and Chicoutimi have seen cases of injunctions and  the use of replacement workers, but have never seen a situation in which an employer has  engaged the use of scab labour this heavily.

“[T]he injunction, the picket lines, that’s part of the game  … the employer has the right to do that … but an employer does not have the right to break the law,” Turcq said.

MUNACA has taken the report’s findings to the Quebec Labour Board for review, attempting to get a ruling against McGill’s alleged use of scab labour.

McGill, on the other hand, maintains that it has acted in full accordance with the law, and defended this position in front of the CNT on Monday.

“The commissioner heard both parties [on Sept. 29] and will be issuing a decision in the coming days,” Michael Di Grappa, Vice-Principal of Administration and Finance at McGill Univeristy, said. “We have to see what that decision is … we still believe that we are in total compliance with the provisions of the law.”

The CNT’s decision will be handed down this week. In the meantime, MUNACA has published a series of letters to the McGill Board of Governors, urging individual members to appeal to the University to meet the union’s demands.

“I’m not sure everybody in the administration actually understands what’s going on—I’m not sure that everybody that sits on that board knows that they did something illegal,” Turcq said. “I hope they’ll show the common sense that they’ve used in the past to say ‘lets get back to the table and let’s try to find a settlement to this because this is getting ugly.’“

In the meantime, the two parties will continue negotiations on Oct. 26, at the union’s representative’s next availability. 

 

CAMPUS STUDENT RALLY

Several hundred McGill students and faculty members met at the Y-intersection on Sept. 28 for a rally to express solidarity with MUNACA. This rally was a follow-up to an earlier demonstration on Sept. 26, in which members of the administration confronted students outside the James Administration Building.

A video of last Monday’s protest, in which Provost Anthony Masi and Vice Principal Michael Di Grappa attempt to talk with protestors, was widely circulated on YouTube.This video was also used to garner support for Wednesday’s protest. At one point in the video, Di Grappa appears to be telling students that they do not have the right to protest on campus.

When asked to comment, Di Grappa said that the video is not as it seems.

“It’s very easy for things to be out of context,” Di Grappa said.

He reiterated that students have the right to protest, but only in a peaceful, respectful manner.

“People are free to express their opinion, and that they do so respecting the rights of others as well is all that we expect,” he said.

Wednesday’s protest was led by the Mobilization Committee (Mob Squad).

“The protest goes to show the administration that people on this campus aren’t ready to give up on the MUNACA workers,” John-Erik Hansson, a Mob Squad member, said. “Hopefully the a
dministration will start noticing us and they’ll start acknowledging the legitimacy of our movement, and … the demands of the MUNACA workers.”

Demonstrations continued until 1 p.m. Protestors first gathered at the SSMU building, then moved to the Y-intersection on lower campus where students and faculty gave speeches through a megaphone and disseminated information on the MUNACA strike. Later, protestors marched to the James Administration Building.

Calvin Normore, a professor of moral philosophy at MacDonald campus, spoke out against the injunction.

“This protest was a response to the injunction and a response to the university’s efforts to prevent this from happening,” Normore said.

“The university will respond to pressure if there is enough of it,” he added.

MUNACA President Kevin Whittaker said that he understood why students would want to protest.

“University is a business. Students are clients and the University is mistreating them, as well as their staff,” Whittaker said.

 

McGill was named the third most attractive employer in Canada on Thursday.

The announcement was initally made last Thursday by Ranstad Canada, a human resources company.The news of the announcement was  also released by McGill via a press statement issued on Monday.

According to the survey, McGill, in terms of ranking as a desirable employer, placed alongside prestigious and well known companies such as IBM Canada Ltd., Air Canada, and Bombardier Inc. 

“McGill continues to work very hard to provide a stimulating and attractive working environment,” Michael Di Grappa, Vice-Principal of Administration and Finance said of the news. 

“[We] are very proud of this recognition of our efforts, despite limited resources, to be not only a university highly ranked as an academic institution, but as an employer of talented, dedicated employees at every level,” Di Grappa added via press release. 

This announcement comes in the midst of the ongoing MUNACA labour dispute. MUNACA represents approximately 1,700 McGill employees who are presently on strike. 

Kevin Whittaker, the President of MUNACA, had reservations about the anouncement.  

“I don’t know much about the details but I’m rather shocked … if the rankings are going to talk about employment at McGill or how desirable it is, they should talk to the employees,” Whittaker said.

In direct response to Di Grappa’s statement, Kevin Whittaker said, “If he hasn’t noticed the strike he needs to look outside. If we were so well treated, we wouldn’t be on strike.”

Key issues at last Thursday’s SSMU Council included a motion of support for TAs in recent negotiations and proposed changes to how McGill reappoints senior administrators.

Council expanded on issues concerning the support of workers discussed by the General Assembly. In a demonstration of support for graduate students and in the interest of improving the quality of undergraduate education, the council unanimously passed a motion to support the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) in its current negotiations with the administration. Council members agreed to draft and send the administration an official letter vocalizing SSMU’s support for AGSEM’s bargaining priority.

AGSEM is currently engaged in negotiations with the administration and will be meeting with the provost this week to negotiate the number of TAs and the university’s commitment to providing paid training to first-time TAs, among other issues.

The Council also unanimously passed a resolution requesting that the SSMU Representative to the McGill Board of Governors make all reasonable efforts to amend university statutes so that the principal consults an advisory committee when recommending a reappointment or extension for the offices of provost, deputy provost, or vice-principal, not just before recommending a new appointment.

Issues of workers’ solidarity, which were discussed during the first SSMU General Assembly of the year, came up again at Council. The resolution in question emphasized soliciting various perspectives on union disputes, disseminating information to the student body, issuing a statement of support, and encouraging students to support strikers through varied methods, such as participating in picket lines and by petitioning the university. There was heavy debate on whether passing such a resolution would obligate SSMU to support all current and future unions in disputes. However, an amendment to remove a clause supporting future strikes was defeated.

During this discussion, guest speaker and AGSEM representative Jonathan Mooney brought to the attention of the Council the possibility that, once a union contract expires, the administration has the right to lock workers out and deny them re-entry as McGill employees. The resolution was then amended to include support for unions in a lockout and was successfully passed by council. 

The most contentious issue of the night arose when President Knight informed the council of Zach Newburgh’s recent request for SSMU’s membership list

Access to this list is every member’s right under stipulations laid out in the Quebec Companies Act. This act applies to SSMU, as SSMU is a non-profit corporation and accredited student association. As such, SSMU is legally obligated to provide the list regardless of privacy concerns. 

At the time of the meeting, SSMU president Maggie Knight had not received confirmation of Newburgh’s intentions for the list but noted that the former SSMU President had stated that his “rationale was not relevant.” Numerous members of the council expressed discomfort with the potential for privacy violations, pointing to Newburgh’s current employment with the social networking and employment website Jobbook.com.

According to both Knight and SSMU General Manager Pauline Gervais, this is the first time a SSMU membership list has been requested. When asked if there is an existing protocol to address misuse of the information, Knight explained that SSMU would have to take action but that it is too early to consider such options.

“I think it’s premature to speculate, given that I have received confirmation from Zach that he intends to use the list only for the purposes outlined in the act, and since any legal action would have to be evaluated based on the specific circumstances,” Knight said.

The council debated whether the student body should be informed of the situation by SSMU. Some members objected that such a course of action may lead to more requests for the list, raising further privacy concerns, while others noted that students should be alerted of the situation. No consensus was reached during the meeting.

 

Last Friday, SSMU hosted its second strategic summit, this time centred around tuition hikes—an issue pertinent to students in Quebec given the impending tuition hikes later in the year. 

This meeting was one in a series of strategic summits initiated by SSMU President Maggie Knight. Each summit is designed to address and discuss a different problem that affects SSMU, McGill University, and its students.  

Around 20 students arrived at  the meeting ready to learn about information on the upcoming 2012 tuition hikes. Facilitated by SSMU VP University Affairs Emily Yee Clare and VP External Affairs Joël Pedneault, the discussions that followed provided an opportunity both to get informed and to express opinions. 

Quebec currently has the lowest tuition in Canada, but undergraduate tuition will increase in the fall. 

“Starting next September, [Quebec] tuition will be going up $325 a year, over five years,” explained Pedneault. “This adds up to a 75 per cent tuition increase [over those five years].” 

Summit attendees discussed why tuition is being raised in the first place. Organizers cited a 2010 university funding plan published by Finances Quebec which estimated that universities in Quebec were underfunded by $620 million. Attendees asserted that the Quebec government is now using these numbers to justify the 2012 tuition hikes. 

 “These numbers are not calculated based on any need or debt of the institutions,” said a post-graduate student who attended the conference. “They are based on the average of what other students are paying across Canada.”

To some at the meeting, this reflected more of a thirst for money  than a legitimate shortage of funding, triggering further debates on transparency and university priorities. 

“If the tuition increases are approved by the provincial government and not McGill, are we questioning what [Quebec] is doing with the money or how McGill is spending the money?” another student asked.   

In most cases, decisions about the allocation of tuition fees and public money do not depend on the universities themselves. “All the money goes into one pot, and the government redistributes this money to universities using a funding formula,” Pedneault explained. 

  “McGill has been on the forefront of supporting tuition increases,” Pedneault added. “We need to think about that.”

The Quebec government, which announced the tuition hikes back in March, claims it will recycle a large amount of the money collected in the form of government grants and loans.  

However, Pedneault did not feel that additional government grants and loans would alleviate financial need. “Debt loads are only going to increase in the long term,” he said. 

Similarly, an attendee expressed concern that the tuition hikes would  squeeze the middle class. Many middle-class students find themselves in a tricky situation where they aren’t “poor enough” to be eligible for bursaries, and as a result, have to put themselves in large amounts of debt. Tuition increases might only worsen this problem. 

So far, proposed increases in tuition will only apply to in-province students. It has not yet been announced by how much out-of-province and international students’ tuitions will be altered.  

“The issues get really thorny when you talk about out-of-province and international students who pay a lot of money,” Pedneault said. “Some people will say, ‘Well those people are just going to leave the province anyway.'”

Pedneault predicted the Quebec government will not alter the out-of-province and international tuition too dramatically, if at all.

 

BMO Capital Markets Economics, the economic research and analysis division of the Bank of Montreal, released their Canadian Economic Outlook last week. The document projects Canada’s economic situation for 2012 and the remainder of 2011.

The numbers predict that the loonie will fall by roughly seven cents when compared with the U.S. dollar, unemployment will remain at around seven per cent, and the economy will continue to grow at an annualized rate of about two per cent.

According to Professor Poschke of the McGill Economics Department, these numbers can indicate several things. For example, while unemployment is projected to increase slightly, it is important to understand what the increase means in context.

“Over the last 20 years, the average [unemployment rate] has been around eight per cent. Over the last 10 years, around seven per cent. So it’s worse than recently, but okay compared to longer-run Canadian history. Also, Canadian unemployment will probably remain below U.S. unemployment for quite some time. This is rare historically,” Poschke said.

As for the change in the exchange rate, it may actually be positive for the Canadian economy.

“When the Canadian dollar is strong, Canadian products are expensive. All this matters most relative to the U.S. Now that the loonie is a bit weaker, these exporters may be happier,” Poschke said.

Poschke noted, however, that the change in the exchange rate would also mean that Canadians traveling to the U.S. or purchasing U.S. goods would now be able to buy fewer goods than they had earlier this year.

Canada’s growth rate has been close to two per cent for several years. Although the growth rate did not change much, it is trending downward slightly, which is an important indicator.

“The trend also matters: there’s a negative trend. This reflects fear of a further slowdown or renewed recession in the U.S., which would strongly affect Canada because Canada exports a lot to the U.S., so nothing terrible, but a somewhat negative outlook,” Poschke said.

Poschke did remark that the BMO projections were some of the more pessimistic outlooks presented.

“Note that there are many sources of economic forecasts, and it’s not clear whether this one is the most credible one,” he said. “It has the merit of being recent.”

 

On Friday Sept. 30, the AUS held a Frosh town hall meeting on the topic of reforming Arts Frosh. Despite drawing few participants, the meeting went ahead with enthusiasm and provided an opportunity for dissatisfied students to come forward and share their experiences.

One attendee, a U0 Arts student who wished to remain anonymous, felt that as a 17-year-old he missed out on key parts of Frosh. Before buying his wristband, he noticed on the AUS website that Frosh events were not centred around alcohol, and decided to purchase an admission wristband. He was disappointed when, on the first evening event at Palais de Congres, he reached the front of the queue only to be told by a bouncer that 17-year-olds were not being let in because the club was too full. He urged AUS to “keep [frosh] good for the 18-year-olds, but at the same time allow for more inclusion of underage students, too.”

AUS President Jade Calver and the present committee members were keen to hear his feedback and were engaged throughout the discussion, encouraging him to point out all that he felt could be improved, as well as what was positive about the experience.

When talk turned to possible reformations of the system, the AUS VP Events, Jason Karmody, noted that this year AUS made conscious attempts for frosh to be more inclusive for underage students.

The focus of the discussion then moved to specific improvement suggestions, including “significantly cheaper” tickets solely for daytime events, and organizing separate ‘dry’ events without alcohol.

Calver indicated that not forewarning students that most Frosh events were alcohol-based was a mistake.

“That was an oversight on our part,” Calver said.

The student insisted that people should not have the same experience next year, and asked for a refund. On the Frosh website, alcohol is mentioned only under the FAQ section: “At no point will anyone ever be required to drink.”

“Frosh is designed for everyone to meet new people, have a good time, and ease their way into university, so we make sure that there are tons of ways for people to enjoy themselves be it with or without alcohol,” the website reads.

Calver indicated that in the future, the underage student’s situation would not repeat itself.

“I think we’d all agree on lower prices for under-agers,” Calver said.

 

The International Relations Students’ Association of McGill (IRSAM) held its second annual International Relations Simulation (IRSim) Model United Nations conference last weekend.

In contrast to IRSAM’s larger conferences, which host delegates  from high schools or other universities, IRSim is the only annual Model United Nations conference at McGill that is both run and attended by McGill students.

“We started IRSim last year to give McGill students an opportunity to be delegates at McGill, and not have to [travel to other conferences at schools like Columbia],” Michael Tong, president of IRSAM, said.

Close to 90 students attended the conference in order to familiarize themselves with university level Model UN, a change for most from the high school style conferences.

Conference committees included both traditional governing bodies, such as the UN Security Council, and crisis-based task forces like a joint USA-Iran cabinet committee.

Keagan Tafler, IRSAM’s Vice-President of Delegation Affairs, highlighted the importance of exposing students, especially first years, to crisis-style simulations.

“Model UN at the high-school level is traditionally UN style, [where delegates represent countries],” Tafler said.  “A lot of university conferences are crisis-based conferences, where there’s one issue, and delegates represent characters rather than countries.”

In crisis-based committees, there is no set outcome of events. Conference organizers change the scenario in the committee in response to how negotiations between the two groups proceed.

“They deal with the problems as they’re presented to them,” Tafler explained.

Participants prepare not by learning about a specific event, but rather by learning more about their character and their political or ideological positions. In the USA-Iran Joint Committee, for example, participants represented high-ranking government officials from one of the two countries. They had to deal with crises like kidnapping of government officials, cyber attacks on nuclear facilities, and disturbed uranium stores following an earthquake. The unfolding of events could just as easily have transpired on an episode of 24.

Tafler and Tong also emphasized the diverse group of student attendees.

“The beauty of IRSim is it’s not just the ‘Model UN Club,'” Tong, who is in the faculty of science, said. “I’ve processed applications [across a broad range of faculties],” Tafler added.

Nicholas Ellery, U0 arts, participated in this year’s IRSim. He took part in Model UN while in high school and appreciated the opportunity to learn the differences between that and university level Model UN.

“[IRSim] relates much more to the other university conferences, which if I were to participate in as a delegate I’d need to be more accustomed to,” Ellery said. “It serves a good purpose in that sense.”

Ellery also appreciated being able to learn from older participants, something he didn’t have the opportunity to do while in high school.

“It’s really different for me because I started in [Grade 12]. I’m used to being the most experienced in terms of age and [this was quite a different experience].” 

 

The Montreal Jewish General Hospital has been working over the last year to contain Canada’s first large hospital outbreak of a drug- resistant strain of bacteria. While Klebsiella pneumonia Carbapensemase-producing Klebsiella pneumonia (KPC-Kp) is new in Canada, some American hospitals in New York, Baltimore, and North Carolina have been fighting KPC-Kp for more than 10 years. The strain first appeared in the United States in 1999.

Dr. Mark Miller, the head of the JeHG’s division for infectious diseases, presented on the first Canadian breakout of KPC-Kp at the 51st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Chicago on Sept. 18. According to his report, the bacteria began to spread in August, 2010. Within only a few weeks Miller and his team of doctors and nurses managed to get the bacteria’s transmission relatively under control. Researchers first examined bacteria from a patient’s tracheostomy culture and soon realized that it was resistant to common antibiotics. Further investigation led them to realize that they were handling KPC-Kp, and they immediately implemented appropriate measures to limit transmission.

Klebsiella pneumonia (Kp) lives in the human intestine. Healthy people can carry the bacteria without symptoms, but can cause pneumonia or infections in hospitals, where many people with weakened immune systems congregate.  When the bacteria produce Klebsiella pneumonia Carbapensemase (KPC), doctors really begin to worry, because they become resistant to the traditional methods of treatment. Only two antibiotics can be used to treat the bacteria, but patients with certain illnesses or pre-existing conditions may not be able to take the necessary medicine. “It’s a major concern,” Miller said. “There are real limitations in what you can be treated with.”

Doctors at the hospital first began by isolating and actively monitoring affected individuals. Unfortunately, transmission continued, and only subsided once a dedicated quarantine ward was opened. In total, 27 patients contracted KPC-Kp, but only four or five patients actually fell ill with symptoms. 

“As far as we know, there is nobody who died directly from KPC-Kp,” Miller said.  “The antibiotics to which most of our isolates were susceptible included colisitin, tigecycline and gentamicin,” Victor Leung, a co-author of the study presented at the ICAAC, said. “Unfortunately, each of these antibiotics has side effects.”

Since the end of the study in June 2011, there have been seven new cases of patients colonized by the bacteria. Dr. Miller suggested that this is only the “beginning of a problem that will be with us indefinitely.”

Nonetheless, he hopes to prevent the spread and get the number of infected patients down to zero. This bacteria is causing hysteria, in part, explained Miller, because of its relation to a relatively recent discovery of a bacteria that is resistant to all antibiotics. This superbug, the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM), was discovered in India in 2008. Studies have since shown that NDM-producing Klebsiella pneumonia (NDM-Kp) can be found all over India, and this, Miller cautioned, is a major source of concern because of the popularity of travel to India for cheaper medical care. Doctors are worried that patients will bring the bacteria back home with them. Fortunately, there have been no outbreaks of the dangerous NDM-Kp as of yet in Canada. As to how the KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumonia got into Jewish General, doctors simply do not know.

They have, however, implemented strategies for managing future outbreaks. Leung propsed a universal process for screening all patients.

“[There’s a] need for a systematic laboratory detection method so that patients who are colonized or infected with Enterobacteriaceae expressing KPC can be identified and placed on contact precautions to prevent further transmission while in hospital,” Leung said.