We support McGill teaching assistants in their campaign to end wage theft at McGill.

Graduate students come to McGill because they care about high-quality education. McGill graduate students are hardworking and hold themselves to high intellectual and professional standards in their own research and in their work as teaching assistants (TAs).

In a comprehensive survey run by AGSEM (the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill) in 2017, half of TAs worked beyond their contract hours to complete their essential duties as TAs, receiving no compensation for these hours. AGSEM also found that 10% of TAs in 2017 worked more than 20 hours over their allotted contract hours: that’s more than $660 of unpaid labour per TA. 

McGill TAs are also graduate students, working for their academic supervisors who often act as their course supervisors in the TA setting. Working for free means less time for other responsibilities, such as thesis work. We recognize the challenging position this issue places many McGill TAs in: they must either respect their own contracted hours, delivering poorer instruction to students or failing to complete their expected duties; or, betray their own self-interest to perform work according to their high standards for free.

This culture of overwork and free labour clearly does not serve TAs, but it also does not serve McGill students who expect to receive the world-class education they have been promised. It does not serve McGill faculty, whose graduate students, often living below the poverty line, are expected to devote time and energy for free outside of their own academic responsibilities. The university is the sole beneficiary of this system of wage theft. AGSEM will soon begin negotiations with McGill for a new TA contract, fighting for more TA hours at the bargaining table, but in the meantime there are ways to support TAs in the fight to be paid for every hour they work. 

We have the power to end TA exploitation at McGill. We can support McGill TAs who commit to following the rules. We can support McGill TAs who perform their duties with professionalism and excellence within the hours stipulated in their contracts. We can support McGill TAs who refuse to work for free. 

Join us in supporting McGill TAs to work only their contracted hours. No more free hours.

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All those who support McGill TAs in their campaign to end wage theft at McGill are welcome to sign this open letter. More specifically, by signing this form as a :

Course instructor, lecturer, or professor, I commit to supporting McGill TAs and No More Free Hours by:

• Telling my TAs that I support No More Free Hours.

• Working together with my TAs to distribute their hours effectively in a meeting at the beginning of term where we will fill out AGSEM’s Workload Form.

• Reviewing the Workload Form together in the middle of term and reallocating hours as necessary.

• Requesting additional hours from our department if my TAs approach the end of their contract hours.

• Allowing TAs to refuse additional paid hours if they wish.

• And, above all, not asking my TAs to work for free.

If you are a TA and want to commit to not working for free, fill out the No More Free Hours pledge.