After 13 weeks of striking, the conflict between the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL) and McGill administration is coming to an end. According to an AMPL press release, the two parties have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, in which “McGill agreed to negotiate the end of its challenge to the AMPL’s status as a union.” McGill will also no longer try to prevent the certification of two other new professors’ unions: the Association of McGill Professors of Education (AMPE) and the Association of McGill Professors of the Faculty of Arts (AMPFA).
They signed the Memorandum of Understanding prior to their first meeting with a judicial arbitrator today, October 8th. McGill and the Association of McGill Professors of Law are finally on track to find a collective agreement outlining the relationship between the union and the university. Negotiations are advancing productively. The AMPL has agreed to create a federation of unions to join it with the AMPE and the AMPFA. The details of this agreement are still being negotiated.
This solution is a helpful compromise which corresponds to the demands of both McGill and AMPL. The union’s right to exist will be guaranteed, and they will be able to securely represent professors’ interests. McGill also benefits from this solution as they now must negotiate with just one union, rather than with three or more different unions.
The end of the strike has greatly relieved law students and brought a sense of optimism. They missed almost a third of the fall semester: classes did not take place until Thursday October 3rd. There was continuous anxiety and uncertainty as to whether they would be able to receive their credits: “Everyone was saying different stuff, you heard so many rumours,” states S., a third-year law student to The Bull & Bear, “So many people were absolutely sure that our fall break would be cancelled, […] other people were telling me there was no way we would have our exams in December, they’d be reported to January”. First-year students were particularly affected by this delay as they were robbed of the chance to gain their footing in the faculty.
The AMPL first went on strike in April of 2024 to force the McGill administration to negotiate a collective agreement. AMPL accused McGill of refusing to engage meaningfully in dialogue, deliberately sabotaging meeting sessions to waste time. McGill responded by attempting to use “interest arbitration,” a way to have a neutral arbitrator help the negotiations conclude. This was a delay tactic to make law professors return to work until a Quebec Superior Court hearing, which was scheduled for December, that would evaluate AMPL’s certification, which would forcefully end the strikes.
Interest arbitration happens when there seems to be no chance for the parties to find a solution independently. An arbitrator evaluates the situation, and if they deem that an agreement cannot be found within a reasonable delay, the interest arbitration phase begins. During this process, each party expresses its demands, and the arbitrator imposes a solution. Notably, during interest arbitration, all strikes must end. Kirsten Ankler, AMPL’s VP, believes that McGill tried to use the arbitration process to prevent law professors from striking as a delay tactic: “They are going through arbitration so they can stop the strike, not negotiate with us, […] and then have a judicial review”.
The judicial review was going to be the second part of McGill’s strategy. The AMPL was formed in 2021 and certified by the Quebec Labour Court the following year. McGill tried to contest AMPL’s status as a union by applying for a Judicial Review of the Union’s certification, which would have taken place in December in the Quebec Superior Court as previously mentioned. This could have led to the removal of AMPL’s right to exist as a union if the courts sided with McGill.
In the end, McGill was not able to delay negotiation until the judicial review in December because the arbitrator decided not to begin the interest arbitration phase. McGill’s hand was forced to not delay any more; the administration had to drop the judicial review to meet the Law Department’s demand and put an end to the strike.
