On Friday afternoon we held our thirteenth bargaining session with the University administration. Here is an overview of the significant tentative agreement we reached and the other proposals that changed hands.
We began the session asking the administration why we are hearing that our colleagues in various departments are not receiving expected raises upon reappointment. They agreed to investigate this issue further, and the Union will work to hold them accountable. If you believe that you have wrongly been denied a raise, or if you have received a raise upon reappointment this year and are willing to be identified to help ensure raises for your colleagues, please write us at hawuawbc@gmail.com.
In a major success: We have now reached a tentative agreement with the administration on Grievance and Arbitration! This article is a cornerstone of any union contract, as it lays out the process by which we can ensure that our contract is enforced. Among our most significant wins in this procedure after many passes back and forth are an extended timeline for filing grievances and a streamlined process once grievances are filed.
We put one counter-proposal and one new article on the table:
- Union Access and Rights: In this counter-proposal, we re-asserted a number of important rights that will ensure our union can fulfill its core representational duties on campus.
- Evaluations: In this article, we seek to ensure transparency, timeliness, and fairness in how we are evaluated by our supervisors. Our proposal largely seeks to formalize and clarify current evaluation practices across our faculties, but with added protections, including limits on how anonymous student evaluations may be used.
The administration returned three counter-proposals, all on well-worn subjects, and issued one rejection:
- Flexible Working Conditions: The administration continued to resist any right to flexwork and any protections for workers who are unfairly denied flexible working conditions, granting unchecked discretion to managers.
- Job Postings: The administration has now agreed to allow current Employees a few days’ advance access to new job postings. They continue to resist our proposal that current Employees (and former Employees who “timed out” under time caps policies) be guaranteed interviews for positions for which they are qualified.
- Access to Services: The administration made some modest concessions around the availability of storage space for workers, but continues to resist our provisions that would allow for longer library and email access after appointments end, which we believe is necessary for colleagues on semesterly appointments to continue work over the summer.
- PI Rights: The administration rejected our last proposal outright, claiming that postdocs may be incapable of filling out reporting requirements correctly, and thus should only get PI Rights on a case by case basis.
Our union joined together with the AAUP-Harvard Faculty Chapter, the City of Cambridge, and others in hosting a rally on Cambridge Common this past Saturday to push Harvard administrators to stand up to the threats from the Trump administration. Check out this rousing speech from our leaders Kelsey and Hannah on the impacts that Trump cuts have had to their research! With the recent change in tone from Pres. Garber, the pressure clearly had an impact.
In solidarity,
The Harvard Academic Workers FAS/HMS/HDS Bargaining Committee