In Major Year for Labor, Five Campus Unions Head to Bargaining Table

More than 10,500 Harvard workers, represented by five unions, will negotiate new contracts with the University in 2025, setting the stage for a remarkable year in Harvard labor relations.

Three established unions, representing graduate student workers, custodial staff, and Harvard University Police, are set to begin negotiations over succeeding contracts before their current contracts expire later the year. Two more newly created unions representing undergraduate workers and non-tenure-track members of Harvard’s faculty are currently bargaining for first contracts.

All five unions will push for wage increases that compensate for record post-pandemic inflation and the rising cost of living in Boston and Cambridge. Arbitration clauses for discipline and discrimination protections are also likely to be shared demands in the coming months.

Harvard has not negotiated this many contracts in a single year since the pandemic, when five unions negotiated long-term contracts after at least two unions signed one-year agreements.

Even before the national surge in unionization, simultaneous bargaining put a major strain on Harvard.

“Bargaining is never easy,” former National Labor Relations Board chair William B. Gould IV told The Crimson in 2020. “When you’re dealing with a lot of different unions at different bargaining tables, that’s — as a general proposition, having nothing to do with Harvard — a recipe for instability.”

Since then, three new unions have formed on campus, and several more have been set up at Harvard-affiliated institutions.

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a statement that “the University values the contributions of all community members and works hard to negotiate contracts with every union that are beneficial to all in helping contribute to Harvard’s overall mission.”

“We continue to monitor any changes to policies and practices to understand how they might impact members of our community,” he added. “Harvard is committed to keeping our international students and scholars informed on any changes, and to providing appropriate support, as needed.”

Expiring Contracts

Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers has negotiated two contracts since winning a contentious legal battle to unionize in 2018, each after a multi-day strike.

Now, the union is preparing to negotiate a third contract and is already gearing up for a fight.

“My personal expectation is that this is not going to be less contentious than the last contract campaign,” HGSU-UAW member Dorothy Manevich said.

HGSU-UAW’s current contract expires June 30. Representatives will begin bargaining with the University later this month.

Initial bargaining articles presented at a January membership meeting include changes to appointment letters and the grievance and arbitration process. Union officials also say cost of living adjustments for wages are among their top priorities.

Agency shop, grievance, and arbitration were major sticking points in the union’s 2021 negotiations, when members went on a three-day strike before ratifying a contract in November.

According to HGSU-UAW president Sara V. Speller, “almost all of the issues have been issues that the membership has been thinking about for a long time.”

“I would say everything that we’re bringing to the table has been thought about before, has been talked about before, has been rallied over before,” Speller said.

Just months later, Harvard custodial staff, represented by Service Employees International Union 32BJ, will begin negotiating their next contract before the current agreement expires Nov. 15.

32BJ’s last contract negotiations in 2021 was plagued by intra-union conflict. At the time, bargaining committee members representing custodial staff alleged that 32BJ leadership had shut down majority-approved health care proposals and prevented committee members from taking part in negotiation preparations.

In an emailed statement, 32BJ spokesperson Franklin Soults wrote that the union has been in “constant contact” with Harvard employees, and that its “process of engagement will grow in the coming weeks and months.”

“We plan on announcing the opening date as far in advance as possible, since we greatly appreciate the support of the Harvard community to win solid wage increases, protect worker benefits, and reach agreement on other issues important to the people who keep Harvard running safely every day,” Soults added.

Harvard security officers, also represented by 32BJ, will bargain directly with Securitas later this year. Workers faced similar tensions with 32BJ in 2022, and a complaint filed that year over a worker’s dismissal also prompted a slew of questions over the University’s contested responsibility for contracted employees.

Harvard does not directly employ the majority of its security workers, who are instead contracted by the private company Securitas. As a result, 32BJ bargains directly with the security company rather than the University.

While custodians and security officers will be negotiating separately, custodian Doris E. Reina-Landaverde said she anticipates the two locals will attempt to coordinate union actions.

“We will continue to build the unity,” she said.

Harvard University Police Association, which represents the University’s police force, will also begin bargaining this fall. The union’s last contract, ratified in 2022, took 18 months and a federal mediator to conclude. That contract will expire in November.

A HUPA spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

New Unions at the Table

Two unions, both affiliated with the UAW, have carried over negotiations from last year.

Harvard Undergraduate Workers Union-UAW, which represents 400 student employees working in University cafes, libraries, and offices, voted to unionize in October 2023 and has been bargaining since last March. The union has since struggled to recruit members for its bargaining committee and lacks representation from student library and cafe workers.

First contracts are historically contentious and negotiated over longer periods than succeeding agreements. While the number of union petitions has increased dramatically in recent years, as many as half of all new U.S. unions are without a first contract two years after unionizing.

And with frequent turnover at non-academic campus jobs, the undergraduate union has been slow to make progress towards its first contract as bargaining nears the one year mark. HUWU-UAW representatives also did not respond to comment requests for this article.

But unlike with other campus unions, the University is negotiating over the very structure of academic employment with Harvard Academic Workers-UAW, the newest campus union that now represents almost 3,600 non-tenure-track faculty members.

After unionizing in April, HAW-UAW has been bargaining since September. The group’s central contention is that time caps — which limit lecturers and preceptors to a maximum of two, three, and eight year terms, depending on their position — hurt Harvard’s educational offerings as well as the academic workers themselves.

Still early in the bargaining process, the two parties have not agreed to any substantive provisions.

In a Thursday bargaining session, however, the University presented a counter proposal releasing preceptor positions from hard time caps after a series of promotions. While the offer has not been finalized, the proposal alone indicates that time caps are up for negotiation.

According to bargaining committee member Adam Sychla, the union will push to eliminate all time caps and better define distinctions between non-tenure-track faculty positions like lecturers and preceptors, which can be “pretty nebulously defined.”

“I think what’s a big takeaway is just how many people are facing a range of challenges in these positions,” Sychla said.

“It’s empowering that we’re willing to stand together,” he added.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at amann.mahajan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.