tl;dr: In four bargaining sessions over the past three weeks, admin has made their most significant concessions in over a year. But it’s not near enough—we must keep pushing. Our Strike Authorization Vote remains open. If you haven’t yet voted, go vote now! As always, if you have any questions about what’s going on, please email us.

Mindful that we have been bludgeoning your inboxes with emails about the Strike Authorization Vote (SAV), HGSU solidarity, Visitas action, and other updates, we have consolidated here updates from the past four bargaining sessions, which took place over the past three weeks. If that sounds like a lot of bargaining, it is! In response to the opening of our SAV, admin agreed to several additional bargaining dates, which have substantially increased the pace of progress at the table.

First, a non-bargaining announcement: HAW has filed its first unfair labor practice charge against the administration. The complaint focuses specifically on admin’s decision to unilaterally increase the size of Expos Studio courses from 10 students to 15. You can read about our complaint in the Crimson or our press release.

Here are the high points from bargaining in April (see the end of the email for a session-by-session breakdown and links to all passed proposals):

  • We have won consideration for legal permanent residency (green card) sponsorship. Admin has agreed to consider in good faith supporting green cards for unit members who are eligible.
  • Admin continues to resist, however, codifying even Harvard’s current policies on the access of federal law enforcement to campus. We don’t understand why admin wants to give themselves the flexibility to allow ICE more access to campus than they currently enjoy.
  • We have won layoff benefits (including severance, at a rate yet to be bargained) for long-serving academic appointees who are not reappointed. Under current policies, academic appointees are never eligible for layoff benefits. A research appointee—for example—who has worked at Harvard on annual contracts for 25 years can be not reappointed at any time, and will receive no severance or subsidized health insurance, which is a common benefit after a layoff. While many details remain to be hammered out, admin has agreed to a framework in which employees who have worked full or part-time in the bargaining unit in 10 consecutive academic years will become eligible for layoff benefits (including severance) if not reappointed.
  • Admin has finally backed off on its attempt to dramatically increase teacher workloads. For over a year, admin has been attempting to trade the lifting of “time caps” for heavier workloads for teachers—as much as 6 courses per year. They have finally relented in the face of our resistance to this proposal, and are now suggesting teacher workloads that are closer to status quo.
  • Admin has finally agreed to re-title Preceptors as Lecturers. Their proposal envisions two Lecturer “tracks,” which still make problematic distinctions between the classes of workers currently known as “Preceptors” and “Lecturers.” But it’s a start towards unwinding a title that has long frustrated Harvard workers.
  • Admin continues to insist, however, on enrollment minimums for teaching positions that would still impose de facto time caps on many, if not most, teaching faculty.
  • Admin continues to insist as well on the right to not abide by key provisions in our contract—which fundamentally undermines every offer. They continue to insist, for example, on the right to create, eliminate, or modify any job classification in the contract—this would mean that they could restrict postdoc appointments back to 3 months or re-impose “time caps” by fiat, whenever they please.
  • HAW continues to fight for one-year-minimum appointments for postdocs with job security during the term of that appointment. Similar provisions have been won at Mt. Sinai (SPOC-UAW), Rockefeller University (UPROR-UAW), and Albert Einstein College of Medicine (ERU-UAW).
  • HAW continues to insist on protections of Academic Freedom and around Artificial Intelligence. These issues, central to our working conditions, are mandatory subjects of bargaining. Admin has yet to meaningfully engage on either issue.

As you can see from this abbreviated run-down, the pressure that we’ve begun ratcheting up through the power of organizing is beginning to work. But we can’t stop now! We need all hands on deck as we head into the summer to close a strong SAV and continue to build towards the next steps.

Here are a few ways you can help out:

  • Let us know if admin is changing your working conditions! Is the administration assigning you more work because of the current austerity policies? Are they changing other things about your job? If so, it’s probably illegal! Please email us to let us know so we can explore next steps to resisting such changes.
  • Attend bargaining on Tuesday 5/5, 12–3 PM! More workers in the room (whether in person or on Zoom) shows admin that members of this unit are paying attention and want a contract now. RSVP here to receive the Zoom link, and email or talk to a department leader if you’d like to come in person.
  • Check in with your colleagues about the Strike Authorization Vote. Have they voted yet? If they didn’t receive the link, remind them to sign a card to join the union and they’ll receive the voting link!
  • Keep an eye out in your email inbox for announcements soon about more opportunities to meet discuss HAW priorities and strategy with colleagues, in person and on Zoom. If you’d like to help plan a Q&A with union leaders focused specifically on your department, lab, or job, please email us!

In Solidarity,

The FAS/HMS/HDS HAW-UAW Bargaining Committee

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The Details:

On April 7th, we presented a bundle of proposals that are central to how our jobs work: Titles & Classifications, Workloads, Academic Promotions, and Professional Standing. This meeting was scheduled on short notice for the purpose of us offering this package, and Admin brought no proposals. Alongside this package, we also reasserted our positions on Academic Freedom and Artificial Intelligence, noting again that these are mandatory subjects of bargaining.

On April 14th, we presented a counter-package of four important proposals for job security: Discipline and Dismissal, Appointment Security, Appointments & Reappointments, and Layoffs. Admin delivered a counter on Non-Citizen Workers’ Rights and Academic Promotions.  

On April 24th, we countered on Non-Citizen Workers’ Rights and Academic Promotions. The Admin team presented their counters on Layoffs and Appointments & Reappointments (packaged together with already-settled language on Discipline and Dismissal and Appointment Security); Titles and Classifications, Workloads, and Academic Promotions.

On this past Tuesday, April 28th, we delivered counters on Layoffs and Appointments & Reappointments (packaged together, again, with the settled language on Discipline and Dismissal and Appointment Security), while the Admin responded to us on Non-Citizen Workers’ Rights and Academic Promotions. We closed the session by explaining our grave concerns about the significant changes to the Expository Writing Studio Sequence, and informed them of our intent to file an unfair labor practice charge.