TLDR: Admin is moving, but not far enough. For the first time, they offered a significant raise for some HAW workers (FAS and SEAS non-stipendee postdocs) and showed willingness to guarantee modest professional development funds to some workers. Although insufficient, these are promising proposals. But they were overshadowed by admin’s aggressive attempts to exclude hundreds of workers from the union—now potentially including workers at the Wyss —and Admin’s refusal to guarantee availability of visa-compliant health insurance plans.

Admin is responding to our pressure, but we must keep pushing to win fair wages and union protection for all of us. It is crucial that all who are able attend our joint practice pickets with HGSU Wednesday at noon Science Center Plaza in Cambridge and the HMS Quad in Longwood. See you there!

In solidarity,

The FAS/HMS/HDS HAW-UAW Bargaining Committee

Full update:

The Corporation’s new Compensation counter showed a decisive step forward: instead of lowering HMS postdocs salaries to FAS levels as they have previously proposed , Admin proposed to raise the minimum for all non-stipendee postdocs to $74000 starting in FY27. In addition, admin presented a plan for “compression adjustments” to scale salary based on years of service (1% extra per year), but only for current FAS postdocs. For some FAS postdocs, this could be a raise of up to 9.4%. For all other workers, Admin is still offering just 3% and refusing to use salary step systems to account for experience. We are fighting instead for salary steps for all positions which would apply to current and future workers and guarantee long term salary equity.

Admin agreed that teaching faculty need Professional Development opportunities, offering a modest $1000/year for full-time faculty who don’t already receive such funds from their departments. They rejected any guaranteed funds for researchers, claiming that their PIs already provide this. The Corporation also returned Paid Leaves, agreeing to paid vacation time for 12-month teaching employees but continuing to reject our proposal for improved Family Leave and paid leave for victims of domestic abuse.

In their counterproposal on Medical Benefits, the Corporation is continuing to refuse caps on premium increases and refusing to guarantee the availability of health plans that would meet visa requirements. When pressed on this point, they shockingly suggested that in future years they may direct some of us to outside vendors for J1 visa-compliant insurance plans. Harvard has again announced a significant price hike for health insurance plans next year, while keeping our wages stagnant! We need reasonable limits on such cost increases.

Finally, Admin continues to attempt to exclude workers from our unit, denying them their union rights. They ominously suggested that the Wyss institute may be reevaluating its relationship with HMS with the implication that over 100 HAW researchers at the Wyss may soon find themselves excluded from HAW. This is outrageous given that both sides have always agreed, for over two and a half years now, that these workers are in unit. We informed admin that we would fight any attempted exclusions. Wyss workers should contact their local organizers with questions, and sign a card if you haven’t done so already. This week, Harvard also decided to inform around 180 workers, including many teaching faculty, that it deems them to be excluded from HAW as supervisors, even though many know that they perform no supervisory functions. This came as a surprise to us, as we had thought that admin was going to work with us on clarifying supervisory exclusions. If you received such a notice, please email us and briefly describe the aspects of your job that admin might consider supervisory, if you know.  

We presented new proposals on Academic Freedom and Artificial Intelligence, two issues on which admin has thus far flatly refused to engage. We then also presented a mega package bundling together 9 articles, several of which are near agreement, reasserting our priorities on job security, stipendee inclusion, and appointment parameters. (The new counterproposals as part of this package are Titles & Classifications, Workloads, and Professional Standing. We reasserted past positions on Appointments & Reappointments, Layoffs, Discipline & Dismissal, Appointment Notification & Security, and Implementation.)

By offering a significant raise only to a small group of workers, professional development to another and moving to exclude hundreds of workers from the Union, Harvard is clearly attempting to weaken and divide us. We want to win fair wages and protections for all of us, whatever our jobs or visa status.

Support your union by attending our joint practice pickets with the HGSU, Wednesday at 12 at the Science Center Plaza and on the HMS Quad.

Our next bargaining sessions are scheduled for:

  • Friday, September 25th from 2:00 – 5:00
  • Monday, October 5th from 11:00 – 2:00
  • Monday, October 19th from 11:00 – 2:00
  • Friday, October 30th from 10:30 – 1:30

You can sign up here to attend!