Faced with the budget cuts announced for Quebec universities and the current threats to workers’ rights, the mobilization of teachers’ unions is gaining momentum.
Three new McGill associations – the McGill Association of Professors of the Faculty of Arts (AMPFA), the McGill Association of Professors of Education (AMPE) and the McGill Association of Professors of the School of Continuing Education (AMPEEP) – join the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d’université (FQPPU), bringing the number of its member unions and associations to 22.
In brief
- Three newly-unionized teachers’ associations join the FQPPU: AMPFA, AMPE and AMPEEP join the Federation, bringing the number of member unions and associations to 22.
- Austerity and union attacks threaten our universities: McGill is forecasting a $194 million deficit by 2028, which will lead to dangerous budget cuts. At the same time, the Quebec government is seeking to limit the right to strike with a bill that would weaken workers’ protections.
- A call for mobilization and solidarity: the FQPPU actively supports the unionization movements underway and calls on all faculty to join the fight to defend working conditions and the public interest mission of universities.
Austerity and attacks on union rights: the urgent need for solidarity
The recent unionization of these McGill professors comes at a time when their administration is announcing a projected deficit of $194 million by 2028, to which it plans to respond with job cuts and budget restrictions that directly threaten the quality of teaching and the stability of its staff. These budget cuts are part of a broader context that affects all Quebec universities, English-speaking as well as French-speaking, in big cities as well as small towns. It’s worth noting that these massive disinvestments are the result of new, ill-advised government policies, which the FQPPU and other stakeholders in the field had previously strongly denounced.
At the same time as these cuts to university budgets, the Caquist government has chosen to attack workers’ fundamental rights head-on, by tabling a bill to limit the duration of strikes. If adopted, this legislation would dramatically unbalance the balance of power between employers and their employees, for all Quebec workplaces. In such a climate of precariousness and uncertainty, the unionization of Quebec professors, as well as their mobilization at the national level, appear not only as strategic choices, but as an imperative necessity to guarantee fair working conditions and to preserve the public interest mission of our university network.
At a time when budget cuts are weakening our institutions and the government is trying to weaken union protections, faculty mobilization is more essential than ever.
Defending our rights, protecting our universities
“In a context where budget cuts are weakening our institutions and the government is attempting to weaken union protections, the mobilization of faculty is more essential than ever,” says Madeleine Pastinelli, President of the FQPPU. “For over 30 years now, the Federation has been actively campaigning for recognition of the central role of the university mission in society, and for protection of the working conditions that guarantee this mission: together with our members, both present and future, we will continue to keep a watchful eye on the situation.”
Several faculties at McGill University are currently in the process of unionizing, and the Federation will continue to support their efforts to guarantee the integrity of our higher education network. The FQPPU warmly invites all faculty associations and unions to join this growing movement: in the face of the current threats to our universities, solidarity and collective mobilization are our best defences.
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