What the University can’t do directly via legal routes, they are attempting to do indirectly under the pretext of protecting your privacy (Law 25). Members are now asked to consent to disclosing their private medical information by submitting it through this “new process.”
We are currently in arbitration and negotiation for this very question. The University believes that they can demand this information and decide whether or not it is sufficient to allow you to access Short Term Disability benefits. By this, the University is not only putting into question the competency of your medical professional, but also your right to privacy.
We are directing all members NOT to use this process. We are looking into what legal recourse is available to us and what our next steps are.
If you are going on STD, contact the MUNACA office at reception@munaca.com and we can guide you.
I hope this message finds you all well, and that you had some time over the summer to relax and recharge. With the start of this new academic year at McGill, negotiations are at the forefront of all our minds.
Your Negotiations Team has been busy over the summer! This exceptional group representing you at the negotiations table is motivated, energetic, and willing to think outside the box. We participated in a “Nego Boot Camp” facilitated by our PSAC chief negotiator, which included addressing some of the challenges we face with an Employer which seems more set on takingyour rights away than reaching a fair deal.
We are working together to present an update on the current status of our negotiations, as well as discuss priorities going forward. A notice will be sent out soon with details.
While we are in negotiations, our Employer is aggressively restructuring as if we don’t exist. We, too, have decided to revamp and restructure ourselves so that we may be more efficient and effective in every approach we take. You voted for change; change is coming! There will be a separate meeting for the membership to unveil our new way of doing things.
We understand that some of you have been asked by the employer to complete a survey accounting for your use of time and tasks accomplished during the day.If you’ve received this request, please contact us right away at reception@munaca.com.
The Union deems this an abuse of management rights as you are being asked to participate in an exercise being used potentially to:
Abolish positions
Increase individual workloads
Decrease salaries
Circumvent Union protections
If you are being told to sign any documents, indicate next to your signature “I confirm receipt but do not agree with the content”.
If you have already signed or you are obligated to sign electronically, please send an email with the subject heading: Job description per (the date you submitted the document) to your immediate supervisor, local HR, and reception@munaca.com. In the body state “I confirm receipt of the document I was told to sign. I do not agree with the content”. Sign with your name and McGill ID number.
We are currently evaluating the situation to determine the best course of action. The more we know, the better we can protect our rights and support one another.
At the May 16 Town Hall, McGill’s administration delivered a confusing and contradictory message: they acknowledged that layoffs and budget cuts are not sustainable, yet insisted they are inevitable. This narrative is being pushed without transparency or genuine accountability — and it’s frontline staff and students who will pay the price. At the same time, McGill is pushing to raise another $1 billion to reach its $3 billion fundraising goal — a move that stands in stark contrast to the austerity measures being proposed.
What the Administration Isn’t Telling You The total salary mass for Senior Administration and management is $71 million higher than it would be if it had increased at the same rate as salaries for all other job classes. No mention of salary freezes or reductions for senior administrative staff. No commitment to full financial transparency, no clear answers on where and how money is being spent.
Let’s call on McGill to ✅ Implement a moratorium on layoffs and job abolitions ✅ End the hiring freeze that harms departments and services ✅ Cancel the costly NousGroup consulting contract ✅ Freeze and reduce executive compensation ✅ Reverse the opening of Horizon McGill, a high-cost project pushed forward amidst cutbacks
This Is a Choice — Not a Necessity Without access to full financial records, how can students, staff, and faculty know whether cuts are truly necessary? Right now, you are being asked to accept austerity measures without evidence. McGill is using fear and urgency to justify harmful policies without democratic input or transparency.
Let Us Stand for Fairness, Not Fear. The McGill community deserves a voice in decisions that affect livelihoods, academic quality, and student services.
SIGN OUR PETITION to demand a fair, transparent, and people-first approach!
Following the call for nominations for the Union Council Elections:
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (6) • For the position of President, two (2) nominations were received. Therefore, an electronic ballot will be held for this position. The candidates are Dino Dutzand James Newman. The pensketches submitted by the candidates can be viewed by clicking on their name. • For the position of Vice-President (Internal Affairs), two (2) nominations were received. Therefore, an electronic ballot will be held for this position. The candidates are Sherrie Childand Augusto Alfonso Cuellar Diaz. The pensketches submitted by the candidates can be viewed by clicking on their name. • For the position of Vice-President (M Affairs), two (2) nominations were received. Therefore, an electronic ballot will be held for this position. The candidates are Helen Ogundejiand David Roseman. The pensketches submitted by the candidates can be viewed by clicking on their name. • For the position of Vice-President (Communications & Mobilization), one (1) nomination was received; the position is acclaimed by Debra Yee. • For the position of Vice-President (Finance), two (2) nominations were received. Therefore, an electronic ballot will be held for this position. The candidates are Victor Chisholmand Adriana Sgambetterra. The pensketches submitted by the candidates can be viewed by clicking on their name. • For the position of Vice-President (Labour Relations), one (1) nomination was received; the position is acclaimed by Robin Stanford.
COMMITTEE CHAIRS (5) • For the position of Chair of the Grievance Committee, no nominations were received. • For the position of Chair of the Health and Safety Committee, no nominations were received. • For the position of Chair of the Finance Committee, two (2) nominations were received. Therefore, an electronic ballot will be held for this position. The candidates are Paulette Bessetteand Souad Hammami. The pensketches submitted by the candidates can be viewed by clicking on their name. • For the position of Chair of the Solidarity Committee, one (1) nomination was received; the position is acclaimed by Bishara Assaly. • For the position of Chair of the Communications Committee, one (1) nomination was received; the position is acclaimed by Sarah Butler.
CHIEF STEWARD/DISTRICT HEAD – Glen Campus and Solin Hall (2) • For the position of Chief Steward – Glen Campus and Solin Hall, one (1) nomination was received; the position is acclaimed by Alison Hayter.
CHIEF STEWARD/DISTRICT HEAD – Macdonald Campus and the Gault Estate at Mont St Hilaire (4) • For the position of Chief Steward – Macdonald Campus and the Gault Estate at Mont St Hilaire, no nominations were received.
The elections will open on Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 9:00AM and will close on Wednesday June 4, 2025 at 12:00PM (noon). Instructions for the electronic ballot will be sent to all eligible voters.
Please note that only members in good standing of MUNACA-PSAC Local 17602 (i.e. must have signed their membership cards) can vote in MUNACA-PSAC Local 17602 elections. If you wish to verify your membership, please call the MUNACA office at 514-371-2222. Rebecca Nicholson, Chief Returning Officer
First, I must thank you for the week I had following Easter. It was the worst week I have had since becoming a union activist in 1976. I spent most of that week listening to bullshit excuses by HR and supervisors reading from a script. ‘As you know, McGill is facing some financial difficulties so we are going to have to let you go’. All the while you and far too many upper management sit in your offices and pursue the bottom lines of financial ledgers. You collect exorbitant salaries and keep your cushy jobs.
HAVE YOU NO SHAME!!?? Cut upper management positions and salaries.
The decisions you make on behalf of McGill lacks insight on the impact it has on your employees, MUNACA membership, and their families. I would like to put a human face on those whose lives you have turned upside down and forced into a financial crisis. I, of course, will not identify these victims of your cold hearted decisions as you must understand for fear that you may consider retribution.
One member whose job was abolished was hit so hard by the news that he said it was worse than when he was diagnosed with cancer a few years back.
Another victim of your callous decisions was a young woman who had a job but left it to come to McGill believing the myths perpetrated by you and your cronies that McGill was and #1 institution; employees know it is bought and paid for nonsense. In just a couple of months, she would have obtained employment security but to meet your 5% cuts, she is now out of a job. She was recently engaged and has been planning her wedding which, thanks to you, has now been put on hold. Stop lying. Tell the world that McGill is no longer an institute of higher learning and academic research, it is a corporate trade school with an eye on the bottom line with the intent on making it a profitable enterprise.
Next time you take a gander at the bottom line, please consider the profoundly negative impact this has on the lives of employees you are messing with!! They are not just a bottom line.
MUNACA is putting you and your cadre of executives on notice that we are going to hold you accountable, and will ensure your employment will also be affected by these tone deaf decisions.
They are the front line! And they keep McGill functioning!
Dear Members, You and your coworkers have made it clear: enough is enough. Now, it’s time to take the fight straight to McGill’s administration. We have just launched a new public petition calling on McGill to
Implement a Moratorium on Layoffs & Job Abolitions
End the Hiring Freeze
Cancel the NousGroup Consulting Contract
Freeze and Cut Executive Compensation
Reverse the opening of Horizon McGill
Sign your name and share this petition with all your MUNACA co-workers and your broader community to tell Deep Saini and his NousGroup hatchetmen that you will stand and fight for your jobs, your university community, and the future of public higher education in Canada.
Survey Results
The results of the Anonymous Executive Survey you filled out have just come in, and they are eye-opening. Here are some quick stats:
236 of you responded to the survey so far.
97.5% of you agreed that the senior executives of McGill bear responsibility for the financial situation and should take a corresponding cut to their own compensation.
80% of you oppose the opening of the new “Horizon McGill” office and the dramatic expense it entails.
81% of you are against the university hiring NousGroup, at a fee of over $370,000 dollars and counting, in light of the senior admin’s “budget deficit.”
85% of you are ready and willing to fight back against the Senior Administration’s imposed austerity!
Here’s what you and your coworkers are saying loud and clear:
“More and more, it seems that this university is being transformed into a corporate entity. A president is not needed at a university. It is a position for countries and private corporations. The constant need for doing more, more quickly is also part of the corporate mindset. A university is there to educate and research, and should not be turned into a diploma factory.”
“The budget cuts and the cry for poverty from a literal multimillion dollar corporation is full of s***…. : they don’t care about the people on the bottom. These [Executives] are making upwards of $500,000 a year in salary (plus bonuses) and all I want is to be able to afford a place with a second bedroom….If anyone is ready to fight the University over this, it’s me.”
“Spending money on the creation of a new program, hiring a new director, and contracting an outside firm to solve the “budget problem” is a real slap in the face. How many members’ salaries can fit into the salaries of McGill executives?”
I write to you today to vociferously decry your callous actions towards McGill and all its constituents. Under the guise of a budgetary shortfall, you are continuing your policy of scorched earth and laying waste to every institution you have headed over the years. You are following in the footsteps of Heather Monroe-Blum, turning the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning into a ‘Corporate Trade School’.
You are laying off and terminating hard working employees who have families and are already struggling to make ends meet, some of whom are on long term disability. All the while the upper management, with their bloated salaries, continue to feed at the trough of excess. This tone deaf reaction to the so-called deficit can only result in ruination of a once proud place of higher learning, the final nail in the coffin as it were.
For the sake of the argument, let us assume the deficit is real. I would then ask that you and the upper management of McGill show some actual leadership. This can be done in several ways;
Reduce the number of positions in upper management,
Reduce their salaries to the equivalent in other Quebec Universities,
Place a hiring freeze on upper management positions for the duration of the ‘budgetary crisis’,
Stop and cancel the hiring of those whose purposes is to find employees to be terminated,
Cancel the Nous Group contract and any other one in the same vein. See below for examples of the devastation caused by NousGroup and like companies that have no understanding of Universities and their commitment to higher education and research.
Also, I am asking you to cancel all terminations, layoffs, relocations and provide all the stakeholders with the budget and expenses, the real one with all the information in order to see the true picture. I would then ask you to sit with all the interested parties in good faith, with transparency and with a sincere desire to deal fairly and effectively with the present state of affairs at McGill. If you refuse, I would then ask for your resignation.
MUNACA and the other unions on campus will not take these cuts lying down. We’re organizing.
Regards tc
Thomas Chalmers
President MUNACA/PSAC 17602
President Saini you were President & Vice-Chancellor / Professor of Plant, Food & Environmental Sciences Dalhousie University, Jan 2020 to Dec 2022. In 2022 Dalhousie hired UniForum . We also know that Nous Group was used by University of Canberra, where you were Vice-Chancellor & President University of Canberra Sep 2016 – Dec 2019.The general impact of UniForum and Nous Group on universities is that they offer a very expensive benchmarking tool and consultancy, that will push through a pre-existing agenda to make Universities run like businesses during, recommending centralization, automation, and even governance changes, all in times of “austerity”. They manipulate statistics and methodology for this end.( Nous Group and UniForum )
MUNACA spoke to someone at SFU and learned that they cut so deep that their popular co-op program nearly lost accreditation, and they could not keep up with admissions to the University. Here’s a bit of what happened at Queen’s https://qcaa.ca/shockdoctrine/
At Laurentian University the result of austerity with UniForum/Nous Group recommendation was probably the most devastating: “The group recommends reducing the size of the university’s senate, developing a new strategic plan and consolidating all student services.” In all 69 undergraduate and graduate programs and 195 faculty positions were cut. Nous Group worked to change Laurenntian’s own governance structure. The reports produced by Nous Group have been removed from Laurentian’s website.
Dear Members, The McGill upper administration asked us to fill out their survey – let’s be clear: it’s part of their plan to justify cutting your jobs and reorganizing your work.
But we have a survey of our own. Your union is fighting back, and you need to voice your concern. Fill in our short survey today and make your voice count on our terms – not theirs.
We’re also asking you to change your Microsoft Teams profile picture to the below image. It’s a visible way to show that we’re united – and we’re watching. Every time they log in, let’s remind them we’re not backing down.
How to Change Your Microsoft Teams Logo: Download the image here. Click on your MS Teams profile picture in the top-right corner. Click it again in the box that opens, and upload the attached image and hit “Save.” (changes may take an hour to sync) We will also be sending out MUNACA buttons and stickers to members soon!
📣Solidarity, not austerity!
Organized by our sister union, AGSEM 🗓️ April 17 | 🕦 11:30 AM 📍 In front of James Admin 🔥 BBQ • Games • Community
They cut. We organize. These first small steps – your survey response, your logo – build visibility and power. The administration is watching what we do. Let’s show them you’re organized, alert, and not letting them control the narrative.
