Non-tenure faculty at Harvard vote to unionize

Non-tenure faculty at Harvard voted overwhelmingly on Friday to unionize, days after employees at Harvard Law schools joined the same union.  

The more than workers voted 1094-81 to join the Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers (HAW-UAW) union. 

“WE’RE TWO FOR TWO!” the union wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “After HLS clinicians won their union earlier this week, our second unit of non-tenure-track researchers and teachers won 1094-81 (93% Yes). Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen.” 

On Wednesday, Harvard Law School clinical employees voted 62-3 to join the same union.  

“Harvard is incredibly decentralized and we’re often kept away from each other,” Morgan Gilman, a research associate at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement, The Boston Globe reported. “Building our union required us to build bridges across these barriers, and with every wall we knocked down, we found more and more support from coworkers struggling for workplace justice.” 

“Up next: winning improvements to our work!” the union said in the X post.  

On their site, the union says they are focusing on workplace safety, fair parental support, term-limited positions and housing.  

“We look forward to the opening of good faith negotiations with Harvard Academic Workers – United Auto Workers, beginning with the process of working to provide appropriate and accurate information on the bargaining unit, as required, according to National Labor Relations Act rules,” a spokesperson for Harvard told The Hill.

The Hill has reached out to HAW-UAW for comment.