HUCTW reaches tentative three-year agreement with Harvard on wages

The Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers will put a proposal to increase wages before members on April 2.

After a long negotiation, Harvard and its largest union, the 4,600-member Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW), have reached agreement on a multiyear contract; they had operated without one since the end of June 2012. The new contract provides the typical union member with a raise of 3.4 percent during the first year, retroactive to July 1, 2012, and two more annual pay increases at the same rate to be delivered on August 15, 2013, and October 1, 2014. The agreement remains tentative until it is ratified by the union’s membership. Voting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 2.

In addition to wage increases, the agreement provides an innovative “time off or money” provision that, during this calendar year and next, gives union members the option of taking either three additional personal days or a lump-sum payment for each of those days equal to 75 percent of a day’s pay. In a letter to its members, the union noted that this would allow employees “with varied working life circumstances” to “choose what they need most.”

The more difficult issues surrounding the sharing of costs for employee health plans will be referred to a new HUCTW-Harvard Health Care Negotiating Group. In the meantime, the terms of the current health plan will remain in effect.

Harvard’s September 2012 contract offer to HUCTW had included a 2.8 percent increase in the first year, 2.5 percent in the second year, and 2 percent in the third year. And seven other unions at Harvard agreed recently to contracts that included wage increases between 2 and 3 percent, while administrative and professional employees received an average 2.65 percent increase to their base wage. But the union argued that in the past, salary increases had represented real gains—approximately 1.5 percent during the period from 2002 to 2009—beyond the rate of inflation. And the union’s letter to its membership emphasized this point, noting that the tentative agreement “will provide HUCTW members with solid economic progress and wage growth beyond Boston-area inflation.”

“We are very pleased to have reached an agreement that is fair for the University and the members of the HUCTW,” said Marilyn Hausammann, Harvard’s vice president for human resources, in a statement released by the University.  “We value and recognize the important role that HUCTW members play every day at Harvard, and we look forward to moving ahead together with the work of the University.” 

HUCTW director Bill Jaeger, in the same official statement, called the tentative agreement a “strong outcome,” noting that “It’s important to build a good foundation, because there are more tough issues ahead.”

You might also like

Harvard President Alan Garber Helps First-Years Move In

As a potential settlement with the Trump administration looms, Garber gets students settled. 

Harvard’s New Online Orientation Emphasizes Intellectual Paths

A summer course for first-years focuses on academic success, diverse viewpoints.

The Pump Celebrates Its 85th Birthday

Giving Harvard traditions their due 

Most popular

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Five Questions with Peter R. Girguis

A Harvard professor of evolutionary biology on what lurks in the deep sea  

A Harvard Constitutional Scholar on Star Wars and the Supreme Court

The Harvard Law professor and constitutional scholar on what Star Wars can tell us about today’s Supreme Court

Explore More From Current Issue

David McCord in suit reading a book at cluttered wooden desk in office filled with framed art and shelves.

The Pump Celebrates Its 85th Birthday

Giving Harvard traditions their due 

Two women in traditional kimonos, one lighting a cigarette, in a scene from Apart from You.

Harvard Film Archive Spotlights Japanese Director Mikio Naruse

A retrospective of the filmmaker’s works, from Floating Clouds to Flowing

People sit in lawn chairs near a rustic barn at Cider Garden in New Salem on a sunny day.

CiderDays Festival Celebrates All Things Apple

Visiting small-batch cideries and orchards in Massachusetts