McGill University teaching assistants walk the picket line on first strike day
McGill University teaching assistants launched a strike Monday after voting in favour of an eight-week strike mandate last week.
"Our fight is not just for us, it is for the quality of education at this institution," said Dallas Jokic, who is on the TA bargaining committee.
Teaching assistants say they do essential work for undergraduate student's education, including running labs or tutorials and grading assignments.
"I feel like we do just as much or sometimes more work than the actual instructors of the course themselves sometimes,:" said TA Maria Elisa.
"I think that TAs are integral to my studies because most of the time I learn more from them than the actual teachers," said Max Gourmelen, a second-year student.
Negotiations for a new collective agreement started in September. The union says it's been at the table with McGill 18 times since then.
"We've seen a real lack of flexibility, especially on monetary items," said Jokic.
The union's main demand is higher wages. Despite working at a top school, Jokic says many TAs live below the poverty line and make considerably less than teaching assistants at other Canadian universities.
"U of T actually just negotiated a new contract, so as of a couple of weeks ago, they're now going to be making $51 an hour. We make $33 [per hour," said Jokic.
In a statement emailed to CTV News a McGill spokesperson wrote, "McGill looks forward to continuing discussions with the union for the renewal of the collective agreement. The university is continuing its operations, prioritizing the measures necessary to ensure that students are not unduly affected by the labour action."
However, students we spoke to say it is already affecting their studies.
"Them being gone means a lot of my tutorials are canceled, which makes my life a lot harder," said Katherine Lees, a second-year lit student.
Meanwhile, fourth-year bioengineering student Tuna Gedick is worried about delayed grades possibly affecting graduations.
The union says it heads back to the table with McGill on Tuesday. Jokic says they would love to make a deal that could end the strike mandate but adds that TAs are ready to stay there until the end of the semester if necessary.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING BMO clients face outages in Canada, U.S. following data centre fire alarm
Bank of Montreal clients on both sides of the border Thursday morning have reported outages with banking services. BMO said its technical team is investigating.
Drive one of these vehicles? You may pay 37 per cent more than average insurance costs due to thefts
As the number of auto theft incidents rises in Canada, so have insurance premiums for drivers, even the ones whose vehicles aren't stolen.
B.C. mortgage broker ran $270-million Ponzi scheme, then fled Canada, bankruptcy trustee says
The trustee appointed to manage the bankruptcies of a Victoria mortgage company and its owner has concluded that they committed "numerous offences" and operated as a "massive Ponzi scheme."
'I'm not wealthy': Ontario senior shocked she owes $40,000 in capital gains after gifting land
An Ontario senior who wanted to help her daughter and grandson eventually own homes one day decided to give them two lots on her property as a gift—but she didn’t know it would eventually cost her tens of thousands of dollars.
Want to turn off Meta AI? You can't - but there are some workarounds
If you use Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram, you've probably noticed a new character pop up answering search queries or eagerly offering tidbits of information in your feeds, with varying degrees of accuracy.
opinion Trump's Republicans falling far behind in fundraising, infrastructure
In his latest column for CTVNews.ca, Washington political analyst Eric Ham explains how and why Republicans -- up and down the ballot -- are falling far behind Democrats in both fundraising and infrastructure.
Canadians are eyeing moves to these cities for more affordable housing
Faced with elevated housing prices, half of Canadians in the country's largest cities are considering moving to places with more affordable housing.
Canadians' interest in buying EVs fades as barriers, concerns remain: J.D. Power
A new study finds fewer Canadians say they're interested in buying an electric vehicle as concerns remain about limited driving ranges, high prices and a lack of charging stations.
McDonald's says US$18 Big Mac meal was an 'exception' and their prices haven't risen that much
McDonald’s is fighting back against viral tweets and media reports that it says have exaggerated its price increases.