Month: May 2025

Dear President Saini, 

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!

Sincerely, 

Thomas Chalmers
President of MUNACA/PSAC 17602

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?”

In Solidarity,
MUNACA