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…
Bargaining Update #47: August 31, 2026 TLDR; We presented three counters and Admin returned four. We moved to 17% (admin’s previous proposal was 3%) as an initial raise for our members as an effort to get Admin to bargain more seriously over raises while maintaining a tangible improvement for salaries. In admin’s proposals they continue…
Following a strong SAV vote in support of a fair contract and an eventual strike, we had 3 eventful bargaining sessions in August. For the first time Harvard Admin showed some willingness to discuss harassment protections and we see a path forward in some of our most important articles for job security. However Admin is…
TLDR: Friday we saw some very positive movement from Admin, especially on Workloads. However, Admin is still not budging on some core issues for teaching faculty, and they also completely refused to engage with us about their decision to keep our salaries frozen. Finally, we proposed counters for better severance rules; reimbursement of visa costs; and…
Harvard has announced the end of the salary freeze, however, some HAW members have reported that they have been told that they will not be given raises due to our ongoing contract negotiations prohibiting “unilateral” changes in our compensation. To be clear, it is categorically false that Harvard is required to freeze our wages during bargaining….
On Monday the 22nd, we had our 41st (!) bargaining session and received one counterproposal from management. tl;dr – After testimonials from two of our members, we presented articles that address childcare, professional development, and workloads. We remain committed to protecting our members’ abilities to start families, better themselves, and work with dignity. In response,…
At bargaining today, Harvard Admin offered us a pay package that doesn’t even keep up with inflation, including: If you haven’t voted in the strike authorization vote, please do! The more of us who show we are going to stand together, the more we show them we want a contract that addresses our concerns. We need to…
My name is JC, and I’m a Preceptor in Chinese in the department of east Asian languages and civilizations. The motivation for me to get involved in this union 5 years ago was simple: to have a more stable job, as we all deserve, and to live a fuller, more dignified life. By “dignified” I…
I have the same concerns as Jules and can contribute some perspective on the experience of STEM students. I teach as a lecturer in Physical Sciences 12A, in 15 series physics labs. As a result, I work with a broad segment of the STEM student population including physics concentrators, engineers, chemists, and pre-med students. In…
Last week, in the basement of the Barker Center, a group of students gathered to mourn the death of a program that Sara Feldman built, that I have helped to build, and that those same students have helped to build. Every single one of them spoke movingly about the impact that NTTF have made on…
