McGill Undergraduate Social Work students convened in the Wendy Patrick Room located in Wilson Hall to exercise their democratic rights in a student-initiated general assembly where a total of 94 undergraduate students participated.
The BSW students voted in favor of an unlimited general strike that needs to be renewed each subsequent week. The GA had established a quorum of 24 students representing 10% of the total 242 student body. The motion to strike passed with a majority of 47 to 29, with 1 abstention at 4:36 pm. This constituted a 61% majority. This strike will take effect as of Monday March 19th, 2012.
Students passed an amendment to the motion to reconvene one week after the first day of the scheduled strike on Monday March 26th, 2012. This re-convention of the general assembly will vote on the extension of the unlimited strike. The strike motion included a provision to have future revisions pass by a simple majority vote of 50% +1.
One of stipulations of the unlimited strike exempted the strike from affecting the fieldwork placement due to an ethical responsibility to the communities and organizations students serve and the academic obligation to meet requirements of the field placement.
Social work is a profession that has been established to improve the situation of marginalized people and to critically examine societal structures which oppress. As a faculty that values social equity and the promotion of social justice and advocacy, it is appropriate that the undergraduate Social Work students voted in favor for an unlimited strike, in order to promote the belief that education that is a right and not a privilege, while taking a firm stand against the upcoming tuition increase initiated by the Quebec government.
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