HUCTW and University Healthcare Negotiations to Include Third Parties

After failing to reach an agreement by an August deadline on health care and the union eligibility of certain jobs, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers and the University have begun the process of selecting third parties to help resolve ongoing disagreements. These issues had remained unsettled after the ratification of their most recent contract in April.

HUCTW, which represents over 4,600 of Harvard’s non-faculty staff, and the University have been mired in negotiations almost continuously since July 1, 2012, when the old contract between both parties expired. After the longest round of contract negotiations in the union’s history, both sides came to an agreement and ratified a new contract on April 2 of this year.

But the contract left concerns regarding health care and union eligibility unresolved. According to a press release issued by HUCTW at the time, these issues were referred to newly created negotiating units made up of representatives from the union and the University.

These groups, called the Health Care Group and the Joint Committee on the Bargaining Unit, were tasked with reaching an agreement in a three-month window that ended in August.

These issues will now be referred to third party mediators and arbitrators in the coming weeks, as required by the contract.

According to Tania M. deLuzuriaga, a University spokesperson, Harvard and HUCTW are in the “early stages” of selecting those third parties.

“It is a shared goal of the University and HUCTW that these discussions yield agreements that benefit members of the HUCTW and the campus as a whole,” deLuzuriaga wrote in an email.

According to HUCTW Director Bill Jaeger, lingering concerns regarding health care include Medex, a healthcare plan for HUCTW retirees meant to supplement Medicare. Jaeger said that many retirees have experienced increased co-payments in the past year and a half. Over the summer the bargaining unit group attempted to address issues regarding which types of Harvard employees are eligible to join HUCTW.

“There’s more and more awareness in the Harvard workforce that it matters and makes a difference whether you’re in the union or not,” Jaeger said. “We’re in regular contact with a lot of staff members that are not in our bargaining unit who can’t understand why they’re not and for some of those people it’s intensely important.”

Jaeger added that he wished these issues could have been resolved during the summer’s negotiations, independently of any third party.

“The best, clearest, and most strongly supported frameworks are usually the ones that are arrived at just by the parties voluntarily, with hard work but without any external persuasion,” Jaeger said.

—Staff writer Christine Y. Cahill can be reached at christine.cahill@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @cycahill16.