Dear Colleagues,
On Friday, November 6th the Union and Management met for our 53rd bargaining session, where the Union bargaining committee delivered a series of proposals designed to make serious movement towards a fair agreement (see below). Nearly 100 union members joined the session in-person or via Zoom to observe.
Our strike deadline is on Tuesday, November 10th at 9:00 a.m. To win a fair contract, we need to show our power to management now. Please sign up for picket shifts TODAY!
We have one more session scheduled before our strike deadline. Please plan to attend via Zoom or in-person (124 Mt. Auburn) for our 54th bargaining session on Monday, November 9th from 2:00 – 5:00. We expect to receive a comprehensive proposal from management at this time.
The Union continues to seek improvements on our key priorities:
- Fair compensation: Wages that keep up with the cost of inflation and retirement benefits for all full-time employees.
- Family support: Family and childcare benefits equivalent to those given to tenure-line faculty.
- No Carveouts: Inclusion of all workers in our union, including fellowship-supported or “stipendee” postdocs.
- Real recourse for harassment and discrimination: Enforceable protections for workplace discrimination and harassment through the Union grievance and arbitration procedure, to protect workers failed by the Title IX process.
- Strong Union: Right to a strong union through a union security clause that requires all workers who receive rights and benefits from the contract to chip in for contract enforcement.
Summary of Union Proposals from Friday, November 6th
WAGES
You can see what your new salary (for FY27, which is now) would be under our and admin’s proposals using this widget after the bargaining update (note there may be bugs in this – reach out if the result seems unexpected): https://harvardacademicworkers.org/bargaining/
The Union has proposed raising minimum salaries by around 12% for most jobs. For workers already earning more than the new minima, we are proposing a 7% raise. Under our proposal, all workers would also receive backpay to July 1, 3.25% annual cost of living increases, with an additional annual longevity increase of at least 1%. Career researchers (staff and research scientist track) would receive an additional permanent longevity raise (0.5%/year) to account for the stagnant wages in these positions over the last decade. For promotions (e.g. from Lecturer I to II, Postdoc to Senior Postdoc), the Union is proposing 5% additional raises, Harvard only 3%. For most workers the first year raise would be around 10-12%. After 3 years the total raise would be around 19.6-21.8%, more than double Havard’s offer of 9.8% over the same period.
Management has proposed a 3.5% base-salary increase effective upon ratification; no back-pay; a one-time 1% salary bonus.
FAMILY BENEFITS
The Union has proposed parity with faculty for childcare and parental leave. Management has proposed no increases to childcare benefits and no expansion to parental leave.
RETIREMENT
The Union has proposed retirement for postdocs with a three year vesting period. Management has proposed no retirement benefits for postdocs.
UNIT INCLUSION
The Union insists on recognition of stipendees in the union as is standard in postdoc contracts around the country and as supported by a National Labor Relations Decision at UPenn. We proposed a new article to specify how stipendees might be included in our contract. The Union also insists that management take a reasonable approach to designating members of our bargaining unit as supervisors and therefore ineligible for union inclusion.
Management claims that stipendees are not employees at Harvard, despite the fact that most of them work under a supervisor (PI) and perform identical work to other postdocs in their labs. Management has also been making arbitrary designations of supervisory status, despite this not being a problematic issue in similar cases in other non-tenure-track unions.
NON-DISCRIMINATION
The Union has proposed enforceable protections through grievance and third-party arbitration for workplace discrimination, harassment, and bullying. In our most recent proposal, the Union allowed that for Title IX related cases, the worker would first need to use internal processes and that grievances would be limited to insufficient supportive remedies.
Management has been rejecting this proposal, insisting that all such issues are handled in-house through the University’s internal procedures.
UNION SECURITY
The Union has proposed a union shop clause where every worker would pay their fair share, as is standard in the industry, to build a powerful collective that would serve us in years to come.
Management has rejected this proposal though it costs them nothing and is standard in the contracts of other Harvard unions, such as HUCTW.
Links to All Union Proposals from November 6th
Not in a package
Package 1 – Workloads
Titles and Classifications (Reassert from 10/19)
Package 2 – Compensation
Family Benefits (Reassert from 10/19)
Retirement (Reassert from 10/19)
Package 3 – Visas + Health benefits
Visa Processing and Renewal Costs (Reassert from 10/19)
Package 4 – Union Security
Management Rights
Union Security (Reassert from 10/19)