As one local university resolved labor strife with its faculty members, two others face mounting pressure from graduate student employees.
Lesley University saw core faculty members vote Wednesday to ratify a contract, resolving two years of negotiations that included a recent two-day strike.
“It’s just amazing,” said Kelvin Ramirez, an associate professor in Lesley’s expressive therapies division who was one of the faculty negotiators. He praised his colleagues for standing together. “It’s been a long two years.”
Service Employees International Union Local 509, the union representing 82 core faculty members at Lesley, said 87 percent of its members voted on the contract and unanimously ratified a new contract. It includes higher minimum salaries for new and existing faculty, two percent annual wage increases retroactive to Jan. 2025, $1,000 increases to base salaries now and again in 2029 and new limits to course sizes. The contract did not include a provision to guarantee its terms should Lesley close or be acquired.
Ramirez said faculty gained more than he thought they would and that the union is in a stronger place to support the next version of Lesley. “It feels surreal on so many levels,” he said. “It feels like a resurgence of energy and pride in my faculty.”
Pickets at commencement?
Meanwhile, unionized student workers at Harvard University and MIT are planning their next actions.
The graduate students at Harvard will picket its commencement ceremonies starting May 26 if an agreement is not reached with administrators. Harvard Graduate Students Union — United Auto Workers Local 5118, which represents over 4,000 Harvard student workers, has been on strike for five weeks. The graduate students are seeking a contract that includes support and third-party investigations for harassment and discrimination claims, protections for non-citizen and disabled workers, equitable pay between research assistants and teaching fellows and wages on par with Harvard’s peer institutions — including MIT and Brown University.
HGSU-UAW Local 5118 issued a statement that Harvard’s latest contract proposal is worse than the contract the union ratified in 2021. The union cited the removal of discrimination protections and funds for health care and childcare, as well as failing to strengthen protections for non-citizen workers.
Union member Rochelle Sun, a fourth-year PhD student studying political science, said she and her peers are frustrated and don’t want to have to picket.
“The vast majority of graduate students don’t come to Harvard for a paycheck,” Sun said. “Oftentimes, these are people who forwent higher-paying jobs to pursue a research interest here. People are upset that they have to be on strike.”
Sun said picketing at commencement is a last resort, brought on because only three bargaining sessions have taken place in 15 months and students don’t think Harvard has made “meaningful movement.” She said picketing will highlight that while Harvard tells graduates it values their work, “when it actually comes to protecting this work and making it sustainable for other graduate students … they’re refusing,” Sun said.
Union member Dorothy Manevich will receive her PhD in political science student next week, but plans to participate in a picket at commencement, should it take place. She said it will feel bittersweet but wants to leave Harvard “better than she found it.” She accused Harvard of “stripping our sexual harassment protections” and failing to protect international workers and members of gender and ethnic groups that have been targeted by the Trump Administration.
MIT’s unionized graduate student workers plan to rally between commencement ceremonies on May 28, just days before their contract expires. United Electrical Workers Local 256 — MIT Graduate Student Union, which represents 3,000 graduate student members, will be joined by facilities workers represented by SEIU Local 32BJ — both unions are currently bargaining with MIT administrators for fair wage increases, health care coverage and protections for immigrant workers against the Trump administration.
Lauren Chua, MIT graduate student union president, joined the union in 2022, when student workers began a push for a contract they secured in 2023. That contract, she said, has “gaping holes,” such as not recognizing student workers paid through fellowships and not allowing the union to represent students who are disciplined.
“At this time, when higher education is under attack, MIT and Harvard should be working with their graduate workers, not against them,” Chua said.
Chua said MIT administrators have been slow to start negotiating, beginning only April 24. So far, there have been only four half-day bargaining sessions. Chua said graduate workers face “a time where immigration action can happen anywhere, at any time, and just completely uproot the lives of workers now.”
Lesley and MIT administrators have not released statements on recent labor developments on their campuses. A Harvard spokesperson noted a webpage, last updated in April, outlining administration proposals such as increased compensation for salaried workers and new student benefit provisions.
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