The Women’s and Sexual Diversity Studies Student Association (WSSA) voted at a General Assembly (GA) on Tuesday to strike against austerity measures from April 1 to April 7. Additionally, in an online strike referendum held from March 30 to April 1, the Law Students’ Association (LSA) chose to hold a one-day strike on April 2.
A total of four McGill student associations will thus be on strike on April 2 in conjunction with the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ)’s mass protest against austerity, joining over 100,000 students province-wide. The Association des étudiant(e)s en langue et littérature françaises inscrit(e)s aux études supérieures (ADELFIES) will also be on strike for the day, and the Association générale des étudiantes et étudiants de langue et littérature françaises (AGELF), striking since Monday, will remain on strike until April 3.
LSA’s one-day strike passed by a vote of 310 to 197, with a turnout of 76.6 per cent. The strike vote at the WSSA GA passed by a vote of 39 to 9. The motion included a provision to hold another GA on April 7 to consider the renewal of the strike.
“I think it’s really important that we’re actually coming together as a collective and engaging with the topics that we address theoretically [in our courses], and doing something about it, and doing grassroots organizing,” U3 Women’s Studies and Political Science student Sula Greene told The Daily, “especially in an institution that we all criticize in classrooms and find super oppressive.”
The Department of English Student Association (DESA) also held a GA on Tuesday, but it failed to reach quorum for a strike motion. The GA voted to instead hold a strike vote by secret ballot on Wednesday, but this also failed to reach quorum. Although 57 per cent of those voting voted for a strike, the turnout was only 14.4 per cent, while 20 per cent, or 205 students, was required.