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THE HARVARD CRIMSON
NEWS
APRIL 21, 2023
HUCTW
HUCTW Frustrated by Long Negotiations SLOW PACE. Clerical and technical workers have been in contracts negotiations for more than a year. BY CAM E. KETTLES AND JULIA A. MACIEJAK CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
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s negotiations between Harvard’s clerical and technical union and the University pass their one-year mark, union employees have now gone more than a year and a half without a pay raise. The current round of contract negotiations is the second-longest in Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers’ 34-year history. Its previous one-year contract expired Sept. 30, 2022, and HUCTW and Harvard agreed to negotiate through a federal mediator in November 2022. The slow pace of negotiations has caused frustrations to mount within the union. In a March 1 newsletter, the union claimed Harvard has failed to make “a meaningful move since their last offer in January” — an 11.5 percent wage increase over three years, which “doesn’t come close to addressing high inflation rates,” the newsletter stated. “They seem like they’re just digging in their heels,” said Leslie MacPherson, a department administrator at the Harvard Divinity School. In an emailed statement, University spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote that Harvard “re-
mains committed” to negotiating in good faith “with a full appreciation for the important role our HUCTW colleagues have in fulfilling Harvard’s mission and their contributions to our community as a whole.” As the negotiations continue, union members face growing financial strain. Average rent in Boston has increased by 8.1 percent over the past year according to housing website Zillow. “People are feeling the pain,” said Timothy M. Conant, an access coordinator at the Harvard Kennedy School Library. Sarah E. Hillman, an executive assistant at the Sharpe Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, said the lag in negotiations has caused “uncertainty” as she prepares to sign a new lease. “I’m somebody who rents an apartment, and I need to commit to my landlord in May whether I’m staying or moving,” she said. “I find that challenging to do not knowing what my salary will be going into the future.” HUCTW members said many University workers have needed to go into credit card debt or dip into their retirement accounts to stay afloat. “As an older worker, I’m concerned about my rate of pay and the value that it has as I look toward retirement,” Conant said. Anna Taylor, an IT specialist at the Harvard-MIT Data Center, said her coworkers “are making tough choices about which bills to pay.” The Pay
SACKLER FROM PAGE 1
Student Activists Protest Sackler Name ave cut ties with the Sackler h family, including Tufts University, which in 2019 removed the Sackler name from all programs and facilities on its Boston health sciences campus. “No family is more singularly responsible for the opioid crisis that has devastated so many lives,” Harvard Student Labor Action Movement organizer Will M. Sutton ’23 said in an address at the protest. “The Sackler family specifically targeted working class communities for opioid distribution, fostering and then profiting from the addiction of marginalized people,” he added. Sackler — who donated millions to Harvard University in the 1980s to fund the construction of the museum — died before the addictive opioid OxyContin came to market. Still, activists contend he helped develop marketing tactics that Purdue would later use to sell OxyContin. “Denaming is not erasing or rewriting history — it’s acknowledging and conceptualizing it,” Clyve Lawrence ’25, a leader of the Winthrop House denaming campaign and a Crimson Editorial editor, said in an interview following the demonstration on Thursday. “We’re just trying to highlight that history in saying that it is a moral failure. It’s been a moral failure since those names were put up, and we should be very clear in future processes of naming how our community feels about it, what we can do to highlight histories that are much more positive,” he added. The protest was organized by Harvard student activists in coordination with Prescription Addiction Intervention Now, an advocacy group founded by photographer Nan Goldin — whose works are featured in Harvard Art Museums’ private collection — that criticizes the Sackler family. The demonstration comes almost five years after a similar protest and die-in at Harvard Art Museums, which was also led by Goldin, demanded the buildings at Harvard remove Sackler’s name. PAIN activist Harry Cullen led the crowd of protesters through a
call and response statement condemning Harvard’s continued association with the Sackler family. “We are here today to call out Harvard for supporting the Sacklers — a family of billionaires that profited off our pain for generations starting with Arthur Sackler,” Cullen said, echoed by a crowd of chanting protesters. “Five years ago, Nan Goldin and PAIN came here to show Harvard the way to reject the Sackler legacy. Now Harvard students have brought PAIN back to repeat our demands: take down the Sackler name, Cullen said during the protest. “We won’t wait another five years. To uphold the Sackler name is to launder their reputation, to be complicit in their crimes,” Cullen added.
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We’re just trying to highlight that history in saying that it is a moral failure. It’s been a moral failure since those names were put up, and we should be very clear in future processes of naming how our community feels about it.
The University’s last offer to the union — an 11.5 percent raise over three years — has drawn criticism from HUCTW members. In a Feb. 7 email to clerical and technical union members, Harvard’s Vice President of Human Resources Manuel Cuevas-Trisán wrote the offer took into account “comparative market factors, as well as the total compensation and benefits package and low attrition rates.” He also wrote the University had tentatively agreed with HUCTW on “14 topics proposed by the Union” unrelated to compensation. Lamont Library assistant Geoffrey P. Carens said that if the union were to accept the 11.5 percent raise, “we would lose a lot of ground.” Elizabeth C. “Liz” Hoveland ’22, communications coordinator at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, said she believed Cuevas-Trisán’s February email was an example of union-busting by “blaming union leaders for not saying yes to have this contract.” Newton, the University spokesperson, declined to comment on the allegation of union busting. “The University’s latest proposal reflects our commitment to addressing the important issues that remain the focus of these negotiations through significant increases in compensation, including retroactive pay to offset the impact of inflation, and enhanced benefits support,” he added.
The Strategy Since February, HUCTW has been holding informational pickets outside of Massachusetts Hall three days a week to speak to passersby about the union’s demands for Harvard. At the picket last Tuesday, Taylor — the IT specialist — said she believed Harvard’s top leaders and administrators know “that we’re here and we’re not going to give up.” “I think they’re having a really positive effect,” said Hillman, the Harvard Medical School executive assistant. “We have a lot of support in the broader Harvard community for the things that we’re asking for.” On March 21, more than 250 protesters rallied in support of the union. Massachusetts State Rep. Marjorie C. Decker and Boston City Councilor Kenzie Bok ’11 both spoke at the rally. Some HUCTW members disagree with the current picketing campaign, arguing the union should be employing a more forceful approach. “I thought we’d be doing a bit more,” Hoveland said. Carens said they would like the union to consider starting a strike fund. “Personally, if we don’t get a contract offer that I can accept, I will organize a campaign against the contract,” Carens said. Still, HUCTW members remain broadly in support of “what the union is doing,” said Conant, the HKS Library access coordinator, adding that past efforts at picketing and organizing “even-
Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers members picket in Harvard Yard. LUCY H. VUONG—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
tually had an effect on the University.” HUCTW President Carrie E. Barbash said union leadership is continuing to solicit feedback from members. “We are trying to be very careful and listening to all types of members and reaching out to particularly the members that we don’t talk to and don’t hear from as much to see, ‘What are you comfortable with? How are you feeling about this? Do you want to keep pushing? Do you want to settle?’” Barbash said
Though frustrations with the bargaining process have grown, Conant said HUCTW will also see an increase in bargaining power. “Think about what happens in May at the University. We’ve got graduation, we’ve got alumni, we’ve got parents coming through the campus,” Conant said. “Our platform only increases and our visibility only increases as we get farther and deeper into the spring.” cam.kettles@thecrimson.com julia.maciejak@thecrimson.com
College’s DSO Considering New Club Freeze BY ELLA L. JONES AND JOHN N. PEÑA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
arvard College’s Dean of StuH dents Office has proposed a temporary pause on the creation of new student organizations, citing limited resources to accommodate the needs of existing clubs. According to the co-presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Association, administrators from the DSO suggested the move at an April meeting of the Committee on Student Life, an advisory panel at the College composed of administrators, faculty deans, and undergraduates. Associate Dean for Student Engagement Jason R. Meier said in a Wednesday interview that the pause would seek to address the imbalance between the volume of student organizations and the resources available to support them. The DSO oversees more than 500 existing student organizations and has received between 80 and 100 applications for new organizations annually, a number that has increased over the
past two years, according to Meier. “Reality is, the resources that we have in terms of space, finances, membership, and advising is not keeping pace with the amount of organizations that we have,” he said. Meier said a pause would allow the DSO a chance to “stop the pile-on so that we can strategically think about how to properly manage the system.” Alongside limited resources, Meier said the number of student organizations has created redundancy in clubs and made it difficult for some groups to recruit new members. “If every student makes their own student org, who’s a member of that student org?” he said. “We really need to take a pause to really rethink what this process is to make sure that we’re setting our student orgs up for success.” Meier said the DSO is “benchmarking” its student organization ecosystem with other peer institutions, adding that those schools manage fewer clubs and only approve around 20 annually. Despite the proposed pause, the DSO is not looking to limit or
reduce the number of student organizations in the long term. “It would be against everything we stand for to tell an org, ‘You can’t exist anymore,’” he said. The proposed pause would be the latest in a series of moves by the DSO to increase regulation of independent student organizations. In recent months, the DSO has renewed efforts to restrict branding by student organizations, with a focus on groups’ use of the Harvard name. Meier said in an April interview that the DSO also plans to conduct an audit of independent student organizations in conjunction with Harvard’s Office of Risk Management, but he said Wednesday that the proposed pause is unrelated to the audit. HUA Co-President John S. Cooke ’25 said he and Co-President Shikoh Misu Hirabayashi ’24 have spoken “vehemently against” the proposal. “We were completely against it because obviously student organizations — and starting student orgs — are a big part of student life here,” Cooke said.
Hirabayashi called a freeze on creating new clubs “too extreme,” but he acknowledged the resource constraints faced by the DSO. “It is somewhat true that there are a lot of clubs and there are limited finances,” he said. Cooke added that it would be “valuable” for students to offer feedback on whether they support or oppose the proposal directly to the DSO, adding that he and Hirabayashi can only do so much as co-presidents to convey student opinion. Meier said he is “always happy to take critical feedback” and that he appreciates the co-presidents’ suggestions. Meier declined to comment on the likelihood of a club creation freeze, but he said the DSO is soliciting feedback from students about the proposal. “We’re also being really realistic about, ‘What can the ecosystem withstand?’ Because at some point, if it continues to grow at this rate, that system will break,” he said. ella.jones@thecrimson.com john.pena@thecrimson.com
Students Launch New Pro-Palestine Group BY JO B. LEMANN AND ASHER J. MONTGOMERY CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Clyve Lawrence ’25 Protester
Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow has previously said it would be “inappropriate” for the University to remove the Sackler family name from campus buildings, citing “legal and contractual considerations” as well as the fact that Arthur Sackler’s passing before OxyContin was developed and marketed. Bridget S. O’Kelly ’23, co-president of HCOPES, said she was “shocked” by the student turnout. “I think this is an issue that touches a lot of people,” said O’Kelly. “It was really amazing to see all the students show up and kind of put their voices and their bodies behind this movement,” she added.
Graduate students across Harvard launched a new pro-Palestine activism group called Graduate Students 4 Palestine with an event Wednesday. The new organization will create a network for graduate students in different schools at Harvard organizing around Palestinian rights, according to Harvard Divinity School student Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, an organizer for GS4P. “The basic idea is for there to be an institutional home for all grad students who are interested in Palestine and advocacy around Palestine, and for us to advocate with a united voice around the questions of Palestine within the University and beyond,” Tettey-Tamaklo said.
nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com sellers.hill@thecrimson.com
Tettey-Tamaklo said he sees value in graduate students from
different schools coming together in their advocacy for Palestine. “The uniqueness of GS4P is within each school, folks are approaching the question of Palestine from their unique perspectives,” he said. Organizers also said they hope to use their influence as Harvard students to create change. “The brand of Harvard garners a lot of attention, so the things that we’re doing, the things that we’re talking about, how we’re advocating for Palestine, it goes beyond the walls of the institution, and it’s such a perfect space and opportunity for us to do this work,” Tettey-Tamaklo said. The formation of the student group comes roughly a month after “PalTrek,” a funded, weeklong trip to Palestine over spring break that aims to “introduce trekkers to Palestinian culture, history, and people, to foster understanding of the reality of life under military occupation, and to highlight the Palestinian nar-
rative,” according to the organization’s website. Harvard Kennedy School student Maya R.F. Alper said she believes PalTrek created a new spur of pro-Palestine advocacy among Harvard graduate students. “Coming back after PalTrek, there’s been this renewed sense of urgency around organizing around Palestine,” Alper said. “The opportunity to be in Palestine, to hear from Palestinians in their own homes, on their own terms, in their own words about their story was incredibly powerful for me, and so I felt that call to relay those stories really urgently.” HKS students outside of GS4P, including Alper, hosted a teachin on Tuesday to talk about their experiences on PalTrek. Though Alper is not currently part of GS4P, she said she sees value in creating a united front of pro-Palestine advocacy across the University. “Finding a way to bring all of the folks together — all these dis-
parate grad students under one umbrella — is really important, since sort of the core of this kind of organizing work is solidarity and showing up for one another,” Alper said. HKS student Kartikeya Bhatotia, who helped organize the teach-in, said he believed it was important to provide a Palestinian perspective to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the event According to Bhatotia, pro-Palestine organizers are hoping to increase the representation of Palestinians on campus by aiding them during the application process and brainstorming a longterm strategy to provide resources for Palestinians on campus. “I was a participant on the Trek, but I am now participating in the post-Trek activities because we decided that it was important to bring Palestinian voices on campus, just to have a fair representation,” Bhatotia said. jo.lemann@thecrimson.com asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com
