Who are we?

The Association for Union Solidarity of Polytechnique Montreal (Association pour une solidarité syndicale de l’école Polytechnique, ASSEP) is a local union affiliated to the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). The ASSEP represents three negotiation units: the lecturers, the teachers’ assistants, and the post-doctoral interns. You can obtain more information on each negotiation unit by clicking on their respective tabs.

How can you contact us?

You can contact the coordination manager by email at assep.coordination@gmail.com, or the person responsible for each negotiation unit directly:

The union also has an office, currently situated in the main building of Polytechnique (2500 ch. de Polytechnique) in room B-312. The phone number to contact us is 514-340-4711 extention 2318. Currently, our office hours are:

  • Tuesday,  13:00 to 16:30
  • Thursday, 13:00 to 16:30

If you cannot come during office hours, it is also possible to make an appointment. We can also meet you at a place of your convenience, if required.

  • For the summer semester, the union office is temporarily at C-521.4. The permanence will not be assured, because of the pandemic. The fastest way to contact us is by email: assepinformation@gmail.com. We can answer your questions, arrange a meeting with you on Zoom, or make an appointment in person if necessary.

I did not sign my union membership card. What should I do?

You can make an appointment by email or go directly to the union office during office hours. Note that if you did not pay union dues during the previous year, it is possible that you will have to pay up to 2$ when signing the union membership card. For more information on the legal aspects of union membership, you can see the official website of the Quebec government on the topic (in french only). 

What are our rights? What can we currently do?

The ASSEP was created recently and none of the three negotiation unit have signed a collective agreement yet. However, even without a collective agreement, the union can still defend you, especially in the following cases:

  • Polytechnique has the legal obligation to maintain the work conditions as they were when the negotiation unit was created.  For teachers’ assistants’ negotiation unit and post-doctoral fellows’ negotiation unit, the creation date is February 20th, 2015. For the lecturers’ negotiation unit, the creation date is April 20th, 2015.
  • Polytechnique must respect federal (Canada) and provincial (Quebec) laws. Most of the measures protecting workers are covered by provincial laws. You can consult the provincial government website on minimum labour standards and occupational health and safety (CNESST) for more information.
  • If you are in conflict with your supervisor or if you have questions to ask, you can be represented by the Union. An ASSEP union delegate can act as a mediator, a representant or an assistant when you need to meet your supervisor or Polytechnique’s administration.