Allie Stanton here—I’m a postdoc in the Department of Microbiology and an organizer with Harvard Academic Workers. I’m writing to share some updates from our last bargaining session, which took place on Monday, June 2nd.
After wrapping up a meeting with a student and some data analysis in my office at HMS on Monday morning, I hopped on my bike and headed up to Harvard Square to join our bargaining team and other HAW supporters. As a long-time union member, I’ve observed a lot of bargaining sessions on Zoom, but this was my first time attending a session in person. Walking into the bargaining room as a big group to support our colleagues on the bargaining team as they square up against Harvard’s expensive union-busting lawyers, I felt like we were sending an important message: we are paying attention, we won’t stand for bad-faith negotiation tactics, and we demand a fair contract now!
Our bargaining team was hard at work leading up to this session, and we presented counter-proposals for eight contract articles: Academic Freedom, Workplace Representation, AI, Disciplinary Vitality, Professional Standing, Flex Work, Access Needs, and Health and Safety. The first five of these were re-proposed after the administration rejected them outright at our last session, showing how our union, rather than the administration, is committed to protecting workers’ jobs, rights, and freedoms in the face of unprecedented assaults on academic research. On the Access Needs article, the administration seemed out of touch with the realities of the healthcare system and was confused by the idea that it might be difficult to immediately produce extensive documentation of a medical condition in order to receive disability accommodations immediately upon starting a job at Harvard. Luckily, a fellow bargaining observer was able to chime in with their own experience of waiting five months to secure a specialist appointment in order to get a doctor’s note justifying accommodations. HAW is proud to stand up for workers with disabilities, and we won’t back down when it comes to fighting for an accessible workplace.
Something that really disturbed me in the administration’s previous counterproposal to the Flex Work article—which our bargaining team rightfully rejected in their counter—was that they repeatedly insisted that if these contract terms are violated, we would not be able to escalate the issue to arbitration. Arbitration is a process that occurs when an issue cannot be solved through the normal grievance procedure, and it culminates in a binding ruling by a neutral, third-party mediator. Without the threat of arbitration, these sections of our contract are fundamentally unenforceable: by inserting these provisions here and in other articles, including their proposal pertaining to workplace harassment and discrimination, the administration is essentially announcing that they do not intend to abide by the contract. I have seen firsthand how these underhanded tactics play out: when I was a graduate student at Harvard and a member of HGSU, my colleague Lilia Kilburn was sexually assaulted by her advisor John Comaroff, a professor who remains employed by Harvard to this day. Because sexual harassment and assault were not eligible for arbitration under HGSU’s contract, Lilia’s only recourse was to subject herself to a demeaning and one-sided Title IX investigation that favored Comaroff and the University’s reputation over her right to a safe workplace at every step of the way.
Our bargaining committee is made up of volunteer postdocs, preceptors, and lecturers, but for much of the administration’s bargaining team, this is their full time job (and they get paid a lot more than we do!). Despite this, they continue to make little effort to move negotiations along and only provided counter-proposals for three articles: Union Access and Rights, Access to Services, and Evaluations. None of these counter-proposals contain new language that addresses our concerns, and notably, the administration has for months failed to produce a meaningful response to numerous articles that are critically important to workers, such as articles relating to protections from harassment and discrimination and protections for non-citizen workers. In the latter case, despite the immediate threats that non-citizen workers are currently facing, our most recent response from the administration was on March 24th, and they simply returned our proposal with nearly every line crossed out.
While I was frustrated to see the administration continue to stall while workers in HAW desperately need a fair contract, I am feeling energized and emboldened to fight for my rights and the rights of my colleagues this summer and beyond. Remember, our power in the bargaining room comes from our power outside the bargaining room—if you want to help us win better pay, benefits, and workplace rights and protections, sign our petition demanding a fair contract and reach out to get involved in HAW! Whatever your skills, interests, and capacity are, we need you to help us win.
In solidarity,
Allie