Faculty and supporters gather at McGill University, calling for a full counter-offer after months of stalled contract negotiations. Photo by Gavin Sewell.

On a cold, grey April afternoon, faculty from across McGill departments gathered on the steps of the Arts Building to issue an ultimatum. Under the banner of the Confederation of Faculty Associations of McGill (COFAM)—an alliance uniting the university’s newly unionized faculty associations—they set a deadline: after nine months of stalled first-contract negotiations, they wanted a full counter-offer by April 10, rather than the incremental, article by article responses which have left bargaining at a standstill.

The deadline passed and McGill’s administration, for its part, is still holding the line.

Only a few years ago, McGill distinguished itself in having no faculty unions—whereas, according to the Canadian Labour Economics Forum, 90 percent of academic staff at other universities are covered by collective agreements. Since 2022, the faculties of law, education, and arts have unionized after a prolonged and costly battle with the administration—one that included legal challenges and more than $1 million in anti-union spending, according to previous reporting in The Rover. Recognition, however, is only the opening battle. What follows is the harder question of power: who governs the university, and in whose interests.

For many of those involved, the answer goes beyond wages or working conditions. “The big appeal of unionizing profs is a question of power within the university,” said one organizer at the rally. “Profs should have more power… the big one for me is having our say within the institution.”

At issue is not only the content of a first collective agreement, but the extent to which faculty can exercise meaningful control over the institution of which they are the heart.

According to those at the table, the university has responded in fragments to proposals........

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