UQAM Students on strike

Other Montreal schools to vote on strike mandates in General Assemblies this week

Kelly Ebbels, the McGill Daily (McGill University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — Students across Quebec are preparing to strike, protesting tuition hikes and inadequate government funding to post-secondary institutions in the province.

Social science students at l’Université de Québec à Montréal (UQAM) voted in favour of an unlimited general strike on Nov. 6, opening the floodgates for three days of action called by the Association pour une Solidarité Syncidale Édudiante (ASSÉ).

Alexandre Leduc, the coordination secretary for social science students at UQAM, said that the push for an unlimited general strike came as a surprise to the executive.

“I have to admit, we didn’t see this coming,” Leduc said. “But people wanted to move. They’ve been waiting since September to do something.”

The faculty’s strike was effective immediately and will last at least until the next scheduled general assembly on Nov. 19.

Students from the faculty of languages and communications at UQAM also voted at a general assembly on Nov. 7 to strike from Nov. 12-19. Students from the faculty of political science and law also voted for a one-week strike from Nov. 12-16.

Students from the faculty of arts voted to strike from Nov. 7-16.

ASSÉ, the radical student union in Quebec that represents about 40,000 students, has called for three days of action to occur from Nov. 14-16 to protest the Liberal party’s decision last May to lift the tuition fee freeze.

Tuition for Quebec students increased $50 this semester, and will continue to increase $50 per semester for the next five years — a total increase of $500, or 30 per cent.

McGill Universities undergraduates will vote on whether or not to hold a one-day strike at a general assembly on Nov. 13.

Although ASSÉ was pushing for an unlimited general strike across the entire province this fall, its members failed to gain support for a strike mandate from 25,000 students or seven associations — the minimum required for such an action.

ASSÉ is hoping that the planned three-day strike will prepare their membership for a larger push in favour of a province-wide unlimited general strike, according to Marc-André Faucher, information secretary for ASSÉ.

“We don’t want to be doing nothing this semester, so we decided to hold a few days of strike. If there are no actions taking place, then we’re just on standby, and the population doesn’t really know [about student grievances],” Faucher said.

Only 50 per cent of the 340 students present voting for, 38 per cent against. Sixty per cent of the languages and communications students voted in favour of the one-week strike.

In the meantime, Leduc said the social science faculty would help to organize with other faculties at UQAM, and to prepare for sporadic “direct actions.”

Several UQAM faculties are also preparing an initiative called “UPAM” – Université populaire à Montréal – for the week of action.

At UPAM, students and professors will host ad-hoc teaching and information sessions. They are also preparing a bed-in for the night of Nov. 13, where students will camp out in the school.

UQAM’s support for the strike was predictable. The school is deep in debt, and with a new rector on the way to help resolve the funding crisis, students are concerned about cuts to teacher salaries, faculties and student services.

Leduc said that UQAM has hired accounting firms Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers to audit UQAM’s budget and present a plan for cuts.

“So our political future is being decided by private firms,” Leduc said. “We don’t own our future.”

According to Dominique Guay, a vice-president with the faculty of languages and communications at UQAM — a school not affiliated with ASSÉ — many students at UQAM fear their administration is taking the wrong approach to solving the funding crisis by allowing a hike in tuition fees.

“They’ve decided to take the easy way out,” Guay said. “The government says, ‘jump,’ and they say, ‘how high?’”

“We have to demonstrate how badly we need government funding, and we will not stand idle while our school is being amputated,” Guay said.

ASSÉ is not the only student union mobilizing against change. La Fédération Étudiante Universitaire de Québec (FEUQ), the more moderate Quebec student association representing about 100,000 students, is organizing a Day of Action on Nov. 22.