Louigi Addario-Berry, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McGill University
One of the major concerns we have heard from academics in Science concerns which of our activities could be disrupted by a strike. Researchers in lab sciences seem particularly preoccupied by this point, and we have had questions about whether the following activities could be disrupted:
- Animal care
- Purchase / regulatory approvals
- Graduate student degree progress
- Lab personnel experimental progress
- Editorial and review responsibilities
- Submitting and reviewing grant applications
- Field work
- Conference organizing/travel
This post addresses some of those concerns.
- It is our choice.
A first, crucial point is that Science faculty, and science faculty alone, shall determine if, and how, science will strike. Not other faculty unions and not a minority of science faculty members. A strike in the Faculty of Science will never occur except if there is a majority vote by Faculty of Science colleagues. The Faculty of Science may choose to collectively bargain with the university, alongside academics from other faculties, on points of common concern. However, strike decisions remain ours and ours alone, even in the event of a strike by other academics on campus. - Strike protocols protect essential lab access.
During the process of collective bargaining, it is standard practice to create a strike protocol, which essentially operates as a memorandum of understanding between the university and the union, agreeing about which work will and won’t be struck. This allows research labs with time-sensitive operations with animals or with personnel not in the bargaining unit (grad students, RAs, lab assistants) to be able to continue to work, and for the personnel not in the bargaining unit to continue to get paid.
Indeed, the establishment of a strike protocol is not only standard practice, but is required under Quebec labour law. Article 111.10 of the Quebec labour code reads, in part, as follows.
111.10 In the event of a strike by an institution’s employees, the parties are required to maintain essential services.
111.10.1 The essential services that must be maintained shall be negotiated between the certified association and the institution…
111.10.3. If no agreement is reached, the certified association shall send to the Tribunal for approval a list providing for the essential services that must be maintained in the event of a strike.
This negotiation typically occurs well in advance of any potential strike. It determines, among other things, what constitute essential services. In the case of the recent strike at Université Laval, for example, the university and the union agreed on a strike protocol without the involvement of the tribunal. There is further data on strike agreements, from universities in other parts of Canada, later in this post. - We retain autonomy over our research funds.
The tri-council’s policy is that employers cannot use strikes to block the use of research funds or otherwise block tri-council-supported research. The tri-council has explicitly confirmed this in response to a query from the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). Per the tri-council’s deputy chief financial officer for SSHRC and NSERC, in the event of a strike:
“[T]he agencies would maintain grant and award funding to researchers, students and fellows for existing research projects. Funds for grants, fellowships, and scholarships must continue to be used for the eligible expenses for which the funds were awarded. During this time, in keeping with the Tri-Agency Guide on Financial Administration (TAGFA), the institution must ensure that the research project and/or the grantee’s signing authority is not compromised”
This tri-council policy is a powerful tool for protecting the continuity of lab research activities.
Relatedly, if we decide to strike, we have the power to delegate authority over payments from our research funds to managers or others, to ensure continuity of all salary and other payments from our research funds. - We decide the parameters of a strike.
There is no necessity of a strike being seven days a week. In fact, a one or two-day a week strike can be very powerful (e.g., every Tuesday, or every Tuesday and Friday). This leaves us access to email and IT on all other days (though we can also negotiate access to IT during a strike), and the ability to continue with on-campus research. Such intermittent strikes also ramp up the cost and inconvenience to the employer of cutting IT, if they choose to do so.
Here is a quote from Evan Fox-Decent, president of the law faculty union (AMPL):
One of the most disruptive things Law did while on strike was to come back for a Friday in September, compelling McGill to turn IT back on. When they refused to drop their legal challenge to our existence, we went back out on Monday. They caved a week later. - Arbitration is an option.
The association and the university can always agree to arbitration to avoid a strike. Moreover, in first contract negotiations, either party can ask the minister for arbitration to avoid a strike or lockout (that’s why the academics in the McGill Faculty of Law are in arbitration now). - We can continue to do research.
During any strike, academics in the faculty continue to have essentially free rein over research activities such as attending or organizing conferences, and more generally any work that doesn’t require us access to university resources. The laws about not working during a strike (anti-scab laws) are designed to protect the employees, not the employer. There has never been a case of an employer bringing a complaint to the tribunal because of their employees working during a strike. The Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL) obtained a legal opinion from an independent law firm addressing this point, which included the following observation (translated from French):
Conducting research is certainly part of a professor’s duties, but that does not mean that every time a professor writes a paper or gives a speech, the university is “using their services” within the meaning of … the Labour code.
The same point applies to any other external professional obligations. In short: if we want to keep writing papers, going to conferences, or organizing workshops during a strike, we are free to do so. - More info about strike agreements.
Below we have included additional information related to strike agreements from recent labour actions in in other Canadian Universities.
York University Faculty Association
YUFA negotiated their collective agreement in Summer 2024. They voted over 90 percent in favour of a strike mandate. They then reached a new collective agreement without a strike.
Their prior agreed-upon strike protocol, negotiated with the university, clearly laid out provisions for maintaining not only essential services, but research activities, during a strike. Here are some excerpts from a letter from York administration to YUFA:
• Research materials, research facilities, and equipment that require maintenance to ensure their viability after a work stoppage will be maintained.
• Expenditures to be charged to research funds for the salaries of non-YUFA represented employees and other essential costs represented by existing recurring payments will continue to be processed.
• The University would support requests to external funders for additional time that might be required due to a labour disruption.
• Purchases of capital equipment made prior to a labour disruption will be honoured.
• Employees will, however, continue to receive support from the office of the Vice- President Research and Innovation (VPRI) to complete and submit those external grant applications which were in progress and receiving research services support directly from the Office of VPRI before a labour disruption commences.
Moreover, Article 6.02 in the YUFA collective agreement explicitly covers access to animal labs:
In the event of a strike or lock-out, employees whose ongoing research requires access to University facilities in order to prevent irreparable damage to research (such as the loss of live and/or decomposable materials) shall be allowed access to the facilities usually associated with such research. Such employees shall indicate to their Deans in advance of any strike or lock-out their access requirements. Such indication to their Deans shall be given by employees in writing within ten (10) days of a notice from the Minister of Labour pursuant to section 79 of the Ontario Labour Relations Act.
Lethbridge University
Article 6 in the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association’s collective agreement:
6.1. The Parties shall create an Eligibility List in which they identify which individual employees will be designated as essential to provide the Essential Services as set out in paragraph 5.
6.2. Where Parties cannot agree on the Eligibility List, they will immediately refer the dispute to the Umpire, who shall rule on any and all disputes over the Eligibility List. The Umpire’s ruling is binding upon the Parties.
Lethbridge’s eligibility list included:
• those in labs that work with any hazardous materials;
• those in labs that work with NMR;
• those who supervise clinical placements;
• those who supervise students in counselling practicums or otherwise involved with clinical practicums;
• PIs and co-PIs of clinical and therapeutic trials
McGill Law
For our colleagues in the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL), the strike protocol they negotiated with McGill included the following points:
• Continuation of benefits including supplemental health and dental, life insurance, accidental death & dismemberment, long-term disability.
• No change to ongoing maternity leaves.
• Delegation of signing authority so that research funds could still be accessed.
• Unchanged access to university immigration services.
• Those on sabbatical leave are treated as though not on strike for the duration of the leave.
Moreover, in their revised strike protocol, the university agreed that it “undertakes to follow the recent example of Université Laval and not cut off faculty members’ University email and access to Workday and other IT infrastructure during a legal strike”.
Dalhousie University
In the Dalhousie lockout, the University’s Board of Directors (the Board) and the Dalhousie Faculty Association (DFA) had already negotiated an essential services agreement in advance of the lockout. The faculty association provided the following information to their members three weeks in advance of the lockout:
Members jointly agreed by the Board, DFA, and the affected DFA Member as providing “essential services” are not considered to be on lockout or strike, and are expected to continue their duties on the terms communicated through the Association Board Committee. As is usual during collective bargaining, the Board provided a list of DFA members they proposed as “essential services”.
This followed the protocol laid out by the DFA collective agreement, which reads, inter alia:
34.03 In the event of a work interruption, lock-out or legal strike, Members who require access to University facilities in order to prevent irreparable damage (such as danger to human, plant or animal life or decomposable material) shall be granted such access, if their request is approved by the Association-Board Committee. If possible, requirements for such access shall be made known to the Association-Board Committee, prior to any such work interruption.
34.04 In the event of a legal strike or lock-out, the Board shall provide the Association-Board Committee with a list of essential services and with a list of Members it has nominated to carry out the services detailed in the Board’s list. Such Members, if they are willing and if the committee determines their services are essential, shall continue to work at such services, receiving a percentage of their regular salary and benefits equivalent to the percentage of their regular workload represented by such essential services.
It is important to note that technical staff, students and postdocs retained lab access during the lockout. And again, an essential services protocol, agreed to by both university faculty and the university, was in place well in advance of Day one; this is completely standard at all universities.
If you are an academic in the Faculty of Science and haven’t already done so, please sign a union card.