Graduate student worker strike at Queen's nears 1-month mark as exams begin

Chants of "one day longer, one day stronger" filled the air at Queen's University Tuesday morning as a strike involving hundreds of graduate students nears the one-month mark.

Just across the road is an exam hall, where this week undergraduates began sitting for their finals — some wondering how the lengthy labour action will affect their final marks.

Both the union representing the student workers and the university maintain they're interested in reaching an agreement.

"It's up to the university whether or not they would like to throw away this semester," said Jake Morrow, president of PSAC Local 901. "The union is prepared to stay on the picket line until we have a fair deal."

An April 3 letter from provost Matthew Evans acknowledged concerns from students and parents as exams began, adding Queen's expects a final letter grade to be assigned "in the vast majority of cases."

But, he added, students may end up receiving a credit standing (CR) designation if a fair and reliable grade can't be assigned.

That will be the case in "fewer than five per cent" of courses, which are taught by a striking teaching assistant or in "rare" cases where instructors have withdrawn their labour in support of the union, Evans wrote.

In a separate statement, the university describes CR grades as a "timely, final academic outcome that enables students to progress."

More than 2,000 on strike

The union has raised issues with the university's approach. Morrow called it a failure to provide the education students have paid for and questioned what it will mean for specific disciplines, including engineering accreditation.

"We have members who have CRs on their transcripts and have had trouble getting into programs as a result of that," he said. "The university is doing that to thousands of undergrads right now."

More than 2,000 teaching fellows and teaching or research assistants walked off the job on March 10, marking what's believed to be the first academic strike in the university's history.

Morrow said during the three weeks before the strike deadline the union offered "unlimited availability to bargain," but the university didn't present an offer until 10 minutes before the labour action was set to begin.

At the time, a statement from the union said Queen's had neglected the union's childcare proposals and offered an "insulting" one-time payment of $23 per year, per member to cover mental health and support needs.

The union also called for fair wages, access to affordable housing and paid hours to learn course content.

Morrow previously described what union members earn as "poverty wages," adding their annual salary works out to half of what a minimum-wage worker in the province earns in a year.

In his letter to the school community, provost Evans said Queen's had made a "competitive offer" on March 9, which included annual wage increases that aligned with other unions at the university.

"As of May 1, 2026, the hourly wage rate would be $50; expressed as a stipend for Teaching Fellows, it is $9,924," his message read, noting the increases would bring wages "in excess of wages paid at most comparator U6 research intensive universities in Ontario."

Evans stated Queen's expects a "comprehensive response to our offer" as it tries to reach a collective agreement both parties can ratify.

More than 240 PSAC members have already decided to return to work despite the strike, he added.

Unions says it's tried to resume bargaining

Morrow said PSAC Local 901 proposed a comprehensive package, has made further proposals since and has offered to return to the bargaining table.

"The university is lying about the state of bargaining publicly," the union president said. "It is shameful."

He specifically challenged the suggestion members would be earning $50 an hour, calling it false.

Graduate students are hired based on a funding package, which includes labour owed to the university, but there's no mechanism in their contract that ties the two together, according to Morrow. That means even if the hourly rate goes up, the amount they're paid in other parts of the package could simply be reduced to erase the increase, he said.

As the strike has stretched on, the university has put out statements about the conduct of those on the picket line, at times describing it as "unacceptable." A March 19 message from principal Patrick Deane said students had reported feeling intimidated when trying to enter buildings.

A more-recent message from Evans mentioned delayed food deliveries, interruptions during meetings for exam proctors and "repeated incursions onto the university's private property."

He offered a phone number where people could report issues.

The union has pushed back against those characterizations, sharing an open letter it said has been signed by more than 1,500 undergraduates concerned about their academic careers and calling for bargaining to resume.

Morrow also pointed out security guards posted around the picket line and said they've gotten physical with several picketers and even started following them to the bathroom.

"The amount of disruption that a noisy picket outside of an exam hall has versus the tens of thousands of individual enrolments that have been affected by the university's decision making — it pales in comparison," Morrow said.