Testimonials

Preceptor, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

The time caps make my life rootless, I hesitated to unpack my books. My future is so insecure that I regret owning them. I live with 6 roommates in order to afford Cambridge life on my Preceptor salary. The Yiddish language program that I lovingly rebuilt from scratch is also insecure. When I time out it will be destroyed and my successor will have to start again.

Postdoc, Black Hole Initiative, FAS

Academic workers are workers first, and winning protections and benefits for us is something I feel strongly about. In my experience, postdocs tend to be vulnerable to various stresses, some very extreme, and I welcome this wonderful effort to build solidarity and to empower ourselves to bring positive change.

Lecturer, History and Literature

Teaching awards are nice, but full-time employment would help me raise my two small kids here in the Boston area. I support a union because that's how we'll get Harvard to recognize our teaching as the profession that is--with more job security, a path to promotion, and adequate pay.

Preceptor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations

As a Preceptor in Chinese at the EALC department, I am aware that our Language Instructors are full-time faculty, but their lack of dental insurance is a concern that requires resolution. I also firmly believe that top-performing Preceptors and Instructors should be eligible for renewal, as the frequent departure of talented Instructors at Harvard negatively impacts both the students and the university as a whole. The establishment of a union would provide representation and the means to negotiate with the university to resolve these issues. This is why I support forming a union.

Postdoc, Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

When I started my postdoc at Harvard, I quickly realized how dramatically our experiences as postdocs can vary from one lab to another, not only in terms of salary, but also in terms of working conditions. I believe that having a union is a critical first step towards equalizing our salaries and holding individuals in positions of power accountable for the working environment they provide for postdocs. In addition, because postdoc salary does not reflect the high cost of living in the Boston area, doing a postdoc at Harvard has become a luxury often affordable only to those that have outside support, creating yet another barrier to financially disadvantaged groups.

Postdoc, Philosophy

Unions are so important to securing and protecting workers' rights. It's not even just about what benefits they can and do accrue to their workers. It's about workers having POWER in the asymmetrical relationship between the university and those who work to make it run.

Postdoc, Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

I whole-heartedly support the initiative to form the Harvard Academic Workers union. Systemic changes are necessary to ensure the financial and professional well-being of the community of researchers at Harvard. HAW represents a unified voice and will empower us to take an active role in bringing about this change.

Lecturer, Social Studies, FAS

As a new hire during the pandemic, work remotely has saved me money, but I worry about whether I'll be able to afford living in the Boston area when we go back to in-person teaching. I want a union at Harvard because I want the world to know that the structure of academia needs to change. Harvard puts its brand before the well-being and stability of its academics, and we want to tell the world that won't work anymore.

Postdoc, Institute for Theory and Computation, Center for Astrophysics

I support the union for two main reasons. Firstly, a union will prevent non-tenured employees from being at the mercy of the University regarding decisions that influence our paychecks, grants, and access to resources, information, and support. Secondly, a union will provide a valuable point of contact for non-tenured staff. We will have a centralized and organized arena for questions about our positions, salaries, benefits etc., where we can receive straight-forward answers in our best interest.

Preceptor, Expository Writing

Like many workers at Harvard, I'll have to leave after a certain number of years no matter how well I do my job. Harvard's non-tenure-track workers deserve more, and Harvard's students deserve teachers who can fully focus on their learning and wellbeing, rather than worrying about their own future employment. I want a union because it's the best way to make our voices heard and improve our working conditions and the university as a whole.

Teaching Assistant, Theater, Dance & Media

I first have to negotiate my hours and pay with department admins in order to get hired, and then I negotiate my actual job description with the professor(s). Every semester.

Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Workers need labor unions to amplify their voices and advocate for their interests. As much as academics are encouraged to pretend otherwise, we are workers in increasingly precarious positions with jobs that are exactly that - jobs.

Teaching Assistant, Art, Film, and Visual Studies

Every summer, I lose my health insurance, access to the libraries, and other resources. COBRA insurance costs over $700 per month, so this summer I'm going without health insurance.

Research Associate, Psychology

I support having a union because it allows non-TT academics to have a strong voice to advocate for our scholarly and career success. Unions also advance equity, diversity and inclusion goals.

Lecturer, Social Studies

I’m an award-winning teacher. But I’m not paid like one! With two small kids, it’s a struggle to meet the cost of living. Daycare is 85% of my take-home salary and the subsidy Harvard provides covers just over one month of tuition. Harvard says it values education, but it doesn’t value its educators. I want a seat at the table! I believe all workers at Harvard deserve respect for the hard work we do. This, to me, means a say in the terms of our employment, fair wages commensurate with the cost of living in the Cambridge/Boston area, representation in University governance and leadership, and real recourse when it comes to infringements of our workplace rights.

Lecturer, History and Literature

I support having a union because I believe that academic workers, like all workers, deserve fair compensation, benefits, and security in exchange for the value we provide the university.

Instructor of Philosophy, Harvard Extension School; Former Preceptor, Harvard College Writing Program

No matter how well I do my job, Harvard won’t renew my teaching appointment. Where else are excellent employees fired even when the same work needs to be done next year?

Postdoc, Psychology

I got kicked into gear when I learned how little Harvard pays its postdocs relative to other institutions. Furthermore, I learned about the Faculty of Arts and Sciences salary-cap policy, which purports to promote pay equity, but in reality does the opposite.

Preceptor, Writing Program

Harvard relies heavily on non-ladder faculty to fulfill its educational mission, but we’re still treated like second-class citizens. Unionization is our best chance to ensure that our voices are heard and our contributions to the university are respected.

Preceptor, Expository Writing

For me, joining the union is about working together with my colleagues.

Molecular and Cellular Biology/Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

Doing a postdoc has become a privilege that not everyone can afford to pursue. I want Harvard to be a place where postdocs are supported well enough that researchers are not choosing between pursuing a postdoc and financial or personal security. I have been advocating for changes within Harvard for several years, including as former president of the FAS Postdoc Association as well as in my departments, and I have been disappointed with the speed and extent to which changes are made to support postdocs. I hope that a union will give postdocs and other NTT research and teaching staff more power in our negotiations for much needed changes to our work conditions and compensation.

Preceptor, Writing Program

As a non-tenure-track faculty member with a chronic illness, I worry about losing my access to healthcare.