Harvard Academic Workers Union Seeks 20% Raise, Expanded Benefits in New Proposal

Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers pressed the University for major wage increases and expanded benefits during a bargaining session last Tuesday, the first since the union opened a strike authorization vote after 18 months without a contract.

Union negotiators introduced a sweeping set of economic proposals — 15 articles in total — which they said were aimed at accelerating talks and addressing long-standing concerns over pay and benefits.

The package centers on compensation. The union is seeking a one-time 20 percent wage increase, along with five percent annual raises and an additional three percent raise for workers moving between employment steps. The proposal also includes a $3,000 ratification bonus and retroactive back pay to July 1, 2026.

Bargaining committee member Adam Sychla said the proposal is intended to address wages that have not kept pace with rising costs.

“We want to really be able to catch up after years of raises that have been under what cost of living adjustments should have been, especially for the cost of living in places like Cambridge,” he said.

He added that some workers have gone “over several years” without raises.

The proposal significantly exceeds Harvard’s last offer — roughly two percent annual raises with no upfront increase, presented in October 2025.

Beyond wages, the union is seeking expanded benefits, including student loan repayment assistance and housing benefits that would cap how much Harvard can raise the cost of housing. The proposal would also extend childcare and family benefits to all workers in the bargaining unit and expand access to retirement savings.

Union leaders said many of those benefits are currently unavailable to portions of the workforce.

“We want to just encode that they are eligible for family benefits, so that anyone in our union has the ability to have children if they so choose,” Sychla said.

The union is also pushing to standardize benefits it says are applied inconsistently across Harvard.

Bargaining committee member Leslie J. Fernandez said some benefits are currently granted unevenly.

“There isn’t a clear rationale why some of our workers get it, some of our workers don’t,” he said. “So we’re hoping to get consistency in how these things are applied across the University.”

The economic package comes as the union continues to negotiate unresolved issues over bargaining unit composition and workload.

Union negotiators said the proposal reflects their current position on both.

“I just want us to start off that we are clear on who should be covered by these economic articles, and who should benefit from them,” bargaining committee member Sara M. Feldman said.

Harvard has previously said that it “never agreed” to include non-employees in the HAW-UAW unit. Last July, a Harvard spokesperson said the University’s position on the distinction between academic research and employment was consistent with that of peer institutions, including M.I.T. and Brown University.

HAW-UAW also introduced a revised proposal on protections for non-citizen workers, maintaining demands that Harvard bar immigration enforcement from private campus spaces and refrain from sharing employee information.

Feldman said the union would not compromise on those provisions.

“We cannot compromise on some of our key issues that affect the safety of our members, whether they are U.S. citizens or not,” she said.

“It is reasonable that the current policy about immigration enforcement could be enshrined in our contract,” she added, “unless Harvard is planning to make us less safe.”

At the same session, Harvard presented four proposals related to job security procedures, including appointments, reappointments, discipline, and layoffs. Union negotiators said two of those largely reflected previously agreed-upon language, while others remain unresolved.

Sychla said the union’s proposals align with recent agreements at peer institutions.

“We don’t think that our proposals are anywhere out of step with what are status quo and norms across higher education at this moment,” he said.

Still, union leaders described mounting frustration with the pace of negotiations, saying that they have participated in more than 30 bargaining sessions and over 100 hours of talks — and that they hope to schedule additional meetings in the near future.

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a statement last Wednesday that the University presented a wage proposal to the union in October 2025 and did not hear back for several months.

“HAW did not respond until yesterday (five months later),” he wrote. “When they did respond, they also included 14 new proposals which will ultimately add to the amount of time spent bargaining.”

The union said it hopes the new proposals will push negotiations toward a resolution and avert a strike, but warned it is prepared to escalate if necessary.

“What we are moving forward is giving this last opportunity to work with us, so that we can get to a close understanding before any strike has to happen,” Sychla said. “But if it has to happen, then we are willing to go there.”

—Staff writer Noah A. Ferris can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @noahaferris.