McGill Unions stand with MUNACA

Montréal, May 19 2026 — We, the undersigned presidents of unions at McGill University, are writing to support MUNACA’s upcoming “Facts are Facts, McGill” campaign and the fair contract that MUNACA’s members are still waiting for.

MUNACA represents roughly 1,700 of the people who keep McGill University running: administrative, clerical, technical, nurses and professional support staff across every faculty and service. Their collective agreement expired in May 2024. Two years and dozens of bargaining sessions later, they are still without a deal. Here are the unavoidable facts:

  1. McGill says it is facing a $45 million shortfall, rising to $75 million by 2027–28 without cuts. In the most recent reporting year, McGill’s endowment distributed roughly $79 million from a fund whose market value is at least $2.2 billion. Source: McGill FY25 Endowment Report; McGill administration projections.
  2. Between 2013 and 2024, the share of McGill’s payroll going to executives and management salaries climbed from 9% to over 17%. If executive pay had risen at the same rate as every other job class McGill would now be saving about $77.7 million a year – way more than the entire shortfall. It is important to underline that former Principal Suzanne Fortier’s total compensation in her final year (2021-2022) exceeded $595,000. In addition, upper executives were awarded base salaries for 2023-2024, before bonuses and perks, of $541,724 (Hagurdeep Saini), $835,274 (Christopher Manfredi), $740,371 (Diana Dutton), $573,587 (David Eidelman) and $571,133 (Marc Weinstein). Source: McGill consolidated financial statements and senior-administration salary disclosures, 2013–2024; Open Letter from the Unions of McGill, April 2025; Journal de Québec, December 6 2024.
  3. Despite supposed concern for budgetary deficits, the McGill University Senior Administration decided to subscribe to Nous Data Insights (Nous Group, NousCuban), a group of consultants from an Australian Management Consulting firm, associated with commencing layoffs at other universities in Canada.  Since March 2025 McGill University has paid Nous Data Insights, more than $700,000 (excluding catering) to advise highly paid McGill executives on workforce restructuring – without consulting the unions whose members are being restructured and laid off.
  4. McGill Senior Administration has said a loss of 350-500 jobs would be necessary and this would be through attrition as well as the actual announcement of 99 layoffs. Conveniently, 99 is exactly the threshold for the minimum 8 weeks of notice under Quebec law regulating collective dismissal, which the Employees received. Source: University World News; McGill Reporter.

Why this matters to all of us:

We come from different bargaining units, with different contracts at different tables, but what we share with MUNACA is the same employer, the same campuses, and the same rising cost of living and the same risk of losing our jobs. Our members watch grocery bills, rent, and heating costs go up the same way every other family does. It’s hard to keep hearing McGill say it “cannot afford” to help its own people while management pay has nearly doubled as a share of payroll, and the endowment alone distributes $79 million a year.

What MUNACA is asking for is reasonable: wage and pension offers that catch up to and keep pace with the cost of living, plus real job security with an end to the drift toward unstable term-contract and casual jobs.

What we are asking together.

Beyond the fair contract MUNACA’s members deserve, we are asking McGill University to do three things that affect every union on this campus:

1. A moratorium on layoffs, a real cut to executive pay, and a freeze on new executive hires. A simple pay freeze is not enough. The share of payroll going to executives has nearly doubled in a decade, and McGill is still adding new executive positions on top of that. Cut at the top before you cut at the bottom and stop adding to the top while you are cutting at the bottom.

2. Full public disclosure of the NOUS Group / UniForum engagements. Contract values, deliverables, which units’ data was shared, and which restructuring and layoff recommendations came out of it. The same questions any audit committee would ask.

3. A cross-union seat at the tables on Horizon McGill (NOUS Group) implementation. Consultation rights on every Horizon working group, before recommendations go to the Senate or the Board. We are the workforce being restructured. We have ideas. We should be in the room.

Facts are facts, McGill.

In solidarity,

Margaret Levey, president – Association of McGill Academic Staff of the School of Continuing Studies (AMASCS)

Jill Boruff, president – Association of McGill Library Academic Staff (AMLAS)

Dennis C Wendt, president – Association of McGill Professors of Education (AMPE)

Catherine Leclerc, president – Association of McGill Professors of the Faculty of Arts (AMPFA)

Evan Fox-Decent, president – Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL)

Louigi Addario-Berry, president – Association of McGill Professors of Science (AMPS)

Sean Cory, president – Association of McGill University Research Employees (AMURE-PSAC)

Jonathan Nehme, president – Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE-PSAC)

Raad Jassim, president – McGill Course Lecturers and Instructors Union (MCLIU)