Bargaining update #9: Nearing ✅ on 3 proposals 🛑 17 more to go‼️

Our names are Aparna Gopalan and Sebastian Rowe. Aparna is a G4 in Anthropology and represents the Humanities and Social Sciences on your Bargaining Committee (BC), and Sebastian is a G2 in Chemical Biology and is a Bargaining Steward.

We are down to the wire: one month and just three more scheduled bargaining sessions before our first contract expires. 

Here are three highlights from Bargaining Session #8:

• Your BC tentatively agreed to 🤝 – or TA’d – the University’s proposal on Article 15 Workspace and Materials.
  • This TA marks our first win in this contract, ensuring remote work protections for all student workers!
• Your BC presented the University with our counter-proposals on Articles 3 (Employment Appointment Letter), 9 (Intellectual Property, Scholarly and Research Misconduct), and 18 (Union Access and Rights).
  • All our proposals clarify and strengthen ⚒️ student workers’ workplace rights.
  • In all of the counter-proposals, we showed willingness to move towards consensus with the University.
  • During the bargaining session, the University accepted some of our changes to Article 3, bringing us close to a second possible TA 🤝
• Harvard’s team presented their counter-proposals on Articles 4 (Employment Appointment Security), 10 (Health and Safety) and 13 (International Student Worker Rights and Work Authorization).
  • While the University’s counter on Article 4 showed movement towards strengthening appointment security, the University did not move on improving health and safety or international student protections.
  • For a second time, the University decided to delete our entire section in Article 10 on providing non-police first-responders to student workers facing physical and mental health crises. 
  • The University also struck our proposals to provide all international student workers with substantive legal counsel for visa issues, paid immigration leave, and the right to work for the union on the same basis as U.S. citizens and residents.   

Your Bargaining Committee understands the urgency ️ of contract expiration. We are moving fast. During the bargaining session, we turned around a counter-proposal to the University’s Article 10 (Health and Safety) proposal which we had received just hours before. This moved us closer to a TA 🤝 on Article 10. We’ve also already countered the University’s Article 4 proposal from this morning.

But our rapid pace is not enough when the ball is in Harvard’s court. It is encouraging that we’re nearing agreement on three proposals. Yet, we are still waiting to hear from the University on a dozen proposals covering key issues like compensation, healthcare , real recourse for survivors ⚖️, and union security . 

The University has told us that we will be receiving counters to our economic proposals at the next bargaining session on June 8th, mere weeks before contract expiration. Your BC will be working as fast as possible to review and negotiate these proposals, but it has become clear that without your involvement and pressure on the University, this contract cannot be settled in time. 

Will you join us in the bargaining room to pressure the University to move quickly and agree to a strong contract?

So far, open bargaining has been one of the key factors motivating the University to move towards speedy agreement on your Union’s proposed contract provisions. We really can’t do this without you! 

You’re invited to our next bargaining session on Tuesday, June 8th (3-5pm ET). Please RSVP at this link, mark your calendar and most importantly, share with all your co-workers! 

We hope to see all of you there to win our second contract together. 

In solidarity,
Aparna and Sebastian