McGill law professors' strike suspended, students can go back to class

McGill University and the union representing law professors have struck a deal, allowing law students to return to class — for now.

The school and the union have agreed to suspend the strike, a day after the university threatened to cancel the semester for its law faculty.

On Monday, McGill's administration sent an email to law school students saying it would cancel courses taught by union members, unless they agreed to end the strike. 

Professors were on strike from late August up until Tuesday, and law classes have yet to begin this semester.

In a statement released Tuesday morning, the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL) says it is suspending its strike and the students' return to class would be "without any loss of credits or delay," and that both the professors and the university must now work together to avoid the strike resuming as of next Tuesday, Oct. 8.

McGill said both sides agreed to suspend the strike until a meeting with the arbitrator on Oct. 8.

The school told students on Tuesday that classes will resume no later than Oct. 3, and that more details would be made available within the next 48 hours.

On Monday, professors and students criticized McGill for threatening to cancel classes, with many of them saying the university was not negotiating in good faith. 

There are about 700 law students enrolled at McGill's faculty of law. 

What's in this deal?

The AMPL was certified as a union by the province's labour tribunal in November 2022 but has yet to secure its first collective agreement.

 The university then launched a legal challenge.

Through the deal announced on Tuesday, both parties say they are looking to find a "federated" approach to collective agreements between the university and different professors' unions.

According to Kirsten Anker, a McGill law professor and vice-president of the AMPL, that means that the union would operate independently. It would have its own members, while still falling under a federation of unions that would include other groups it describes as "sister faculty unions," like the Association of McGill Professors of Education (AMPE) and the Association of McGill Professors of the Faculty of Arts (AMPFA).

As part of the agreement announced on Tuesday, McGill will abandon plans to challenge these groups' union certifications, and those groups agree to collaborate to make sure key university policies apply to all of them.

"This is a way to kind of meet us in the middle. We get to be a distinct union with our own members, but we come together to negotiate these university-wide policies," Anker said.

In a statement to CBC News, McGill's media relations office said the university's challenge of the AMPL's union status is not about opposing the unionization of professors.

It said "a federated system" helps avoid a situation whereby "different groups of professors, one as small as 42 in the case of AMPL, would negotiate collective agreements independently."

"Such a scenario could lead to a multitude of independent unions representing professors at the university and would create a Kafkaesque situation," the statement reads.

"In Quebec, it is recognized that employees with a community of interests will generally be part of the same bargaining unit."

McGill's law faculty is the first group of professors to unionize at the university, though most non-faculty staff are unionized.

Law students caught in the middle

Shaina Willison, a second-year law student, said the email she received from McGill on Monday felt "grim," almost as if the cancellation of the semester seemed unavoidable.

Tuesday's message about classes resuming didn't bring relief, though — she said she and other students are confused.

For starters, it's still not clear when classes can resume, and if there will be a deal in place after next Tuesday's deadline. Willison says Tuesday's announcement left her with more questions than answers and how the semester will unfold. 

"Is there going to be a fall reading week? For the international students, are they going to be able to go home for reading week?" she asked.

The 25-year-old says she and many other students receive financial aid from the government, which requires them to be full-time students, and they're uncertain of what will happen to that funding if the classes are scrapped.

"I'm ready to graduate as soon as possible. I really don't want my degree to be extended," she said.

"I really do feel for the teachers' union and I really hope the profs get what they're asking for. But ultimately it would be a real shame if, like myself, a lot of students would have to postpone their degree by six months because there's no end in sight."