Harvard Will Not Contest Faculty Group’s Petition for Official Union Recognition

Harvard will not contest the Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers’ bid for official union recognition in a last-minute agreement on Monday that sets union elections in early April.

The agreement — which comes just more than one week after HAW-UAW filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for official union recognition — allows the group to bypass a lengthy hearing process through the NLRB. Though hearings could have started as early as Tuesday, elections may not have been held for several months.

HAW-UAW workers are split into two units. The larger unit is made up of 3,100 non-tenure-track faculty in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Medical School, and Divinity School. The smaller unit consists of 110 workers at Harvard Law School clinics.

The larger unit will hold its elections over two days on April 3 and April 4, and the HLS Clinical unit will vote on April 3. For each group to unionize, a majority of eligible workers must vote in favor.

HAW-UAW first launched its unionization campaign in February 2023, and both units filed representation petitions with the NLRB last Friday after the larger unit’s negotiations with the University for voluntary recognition fell through.

According to Rebecca Greening, an organizer for the HLS clinical unit and lecturer at the Law School, administrators did not negotiate with the smaller group until a few days before the Tuesday deadline for hearings.

“Not until the very last days of the process did we even see any movement that they were willing to negotiate with us,” Greening said.

“That was frustrating — that we weren’t able to negotiate until kind of the 11th hour, but we’re happy that they ended up coming to the table and negotiating with us,” she said.

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a Wednesday statement that “after meeting frequently with HAW representatives over the past few weeks, we are glad that both parties were able to agree upon a stipulated election agreement.”

“Harvard is committed to following a democratic process that allows members of the proposed unit to have a voice in its collective future,” he added.

HAW-UAW organizers will spend the next few months before the election promoting union priorities and encouraging eligible workers to vote in April.

Part of the voter preparation, Greening said, will include spreading awareness of potential University anti-union activity.

“We have to go back and turn out the vote,” Greening said. “Make sure they know about the vote, and make sure they know about a potential anti-union campaign that Harvard may try to put into place.”

“I think every campaign at Harvard has seen some anti-union campaign by the administration, so we are expecting one,” she said.

—Staff writer Aran Sonnad-Joshi can be reached at aran.sonnad-joshi@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @asonnadjoshi.