McGill University’s administration went up against its course lecturers in late September when university provost Anthony Masi ordered the removal of posters advocating for their unionization.

“[Unionization] has been attempted a couple of times over the last years, and McGill is quite good at shutting it down,” said Michal Rozworski, vice-president of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM).

A course lecturer is an employee hired to teach a course on a contract-by-contract basis and paid per course, Rozworski explained. The use of their services is on the rise throughout universities in Canada as a money saving measure, he said.  

Course lecturers at McGill are the only ones throughout universities in Quebec that have not yet been unionized, and their work conditions show for it, Rozworski said.  

“Salaries are 30-40 per cent lower than colleagues at other universities in Quebec,” he said.

In order to appease their complaints, the university raised course lecturer salaries this past winter. Rozworski said that it’s not just about the money though.

“Sick leave, professional development and office space are also seriously lacking,” he said. “Course lecturers at McGill are just not receiving these basic benefits that course lecturers at other universities are.”

Rozworski said the lecturers were attempting to unionize to improve their working conditions.

The McGill Daily reported that a notice from the admin office was sent to all building directors where the posters were displayed, ordering them to tear them down, should they see them up on the wall.

The day after the notice, Wendy Thomson, director of McGill’s School of Social Work, sent a letter to course lecturers advising them of a $2,000 pay increase to begin in early 2011, the Daily reported last week.The announcement said the “university had planned to publicize these increases during  the  summer  of  2010,  but  a  request  for  union certification  was  filed  in  July  and consequent  to  the  Quebec  Labour Code  the University was prevented from announcing substantive changes in working conditions.”

Rozworski said he is not surprised by the university’s behaviour.“It’s honestly just a thinly veiled tactic at union busting,” he elaborated. “We’ve come to learn that the university is ready to play dirty.”

McGill associate vice president (human resources) Lynne Gervais said the university prefers “to concentrate our communication efforts on our McGill community” and would not comment further for the Charlatan.