Harvard Custodians Open Contract Negotiations With Wage and Benefit Requests

Harvard custodians presented a suite of economic proposals to University officials at their first bargaining session on Tuesday, asking for raises to compensate for inflation since the pandemic began.

Roughly 800 campus custodians, represented by the Service Employees International Union’s 32BJ, are covered by a contract that expires on Nov. 15.

Alongside demands for wage increases and stronger financial retirement options, workers asked Harvard to contribute to a joint union-employer legal fund for immigration-related issues in the wake of the Trump administration’s crackdown on international workers.

The University did not respond in the meeting to the proposal, but Harvard negotiators proposed freezing the union salaries of its non-tenure-track faculty, which are negotiating their first contract, last week. The faculty union was offered roughly 2 percent raises each in the remaining years of their contract, though inflation has hovered near 3 percent since 2023.

Harvard is currently under the combined financial pressure of a hefty endowment tax hike and federal funding cuts.

“It will be a fight because Harvard is saying that even though they’re having tough times, that we shouldn’t take advantage of the moment,” 32BJ Executive Vice President Kevin Brown said at a rally after the bargaining session. “We’re not taking advantage of anything.”

Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons, who attended the rally, added that it was her “expectation that this University comes to the bargaining table with the spirit of fairness and the spirit of equity and the spirit of humanity.”

While issues like wages are renegotiated in each contract cycle, both the proposals for a legal fund for non-citizen workers and access to different retirement plan options would be new for the custodians’ contract with the University, according to union spokesperson Franklin Soults.

The proposal for the joint legal fund mirrors what 32BJ already has in place in other workplaces it represents, asking Harvard to help defray the cost of hiring lawyers should employed custodians face immigration challenges.

“The change of the cost of living, the inflation, the economic uncertainty and the political situation have made it much more difficult for us to take care of our loved ones the last few months,” custodian Mario Arevalo said, in Spanish, at the rally.

Brown added that the union also hopes to address sexual harassment protections and overnight shift pay in upcoming proposals.

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a statement that the University “recognizes the long history of significant contributions to our community from the members of SEIU 32BJ.”

“As this negotiation on the latest contract begins, we will approach these discussions with a commitment to good faith as we work to find agreement on a contract that is beneficial to all,” he wrote.

Custodians last negotiated a contract coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, another period of intense financial uncertainty for the University. The opening of negotiations were marred by internal union tensions as workers alleged union staff shut their bargaining committee out of negotiation preparations.

Harvard custodians also submitted a petition to remove 32BJ as their representative this summer, but withdrew it soon after.

At the close of the rally, which drew a crowd of roughly 30, Brown again called on the University to prioritize its workers.

“What it says on these gates is ‘Veritas, Veritas,’ truth,” Brown said. “Well, Veritas, Veritas, now it’s time to pay us.”

—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.