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THE HARVARD CRIMSON
NEWS
COMMENCEMENT 2023
LABOR
HUCTW Reaches Tentative Agreement IN AGREEMENT. Harvard’s clerical and technical union reached a tentative deal after more than a year of negotiations. BY CAM E. KETTLES CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
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fter 13 months of negotiations and a protracted stalemate over compensation, Harvard’s clerical and technical union reached a tentative agreement with the University before noon May 11, six days before the union’s 35th birthday. If ratified, members of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers will receive four raises that, for a member earning the median salary of $64,000, would increase the member’s base salary by 19 percent. A typical HUCTW member will see a 5.9 percent raise effective Oct. 1, 2022, and three raises of 4.7 percent, 3.8 percent, and
3.5 percent from July 1, 2023, through 2025. “I think the whole package over four years provides us with very meaningful protection against the extraordinarily high inflation that we’ve seen and creates a strong possibility of progress beyond inflation over the life of the contract,” HUCTW Executive Director Bill Jaeger said. Because the tentative agreement also retroactively covers the months since the last contract expired Sept. 30, members will receive a lump sum payment that covers the raise they would have received had the agreement been formally reached before the last contract expired. Union members will also receive an additional $1,400 onetime bonus May 31.According to a joint statement by the University and HUCTW, a ratification vote is expected by the end of the month. The tentative deal comes after four months of picketing by union members, a March rally
with more than 250 attendees, and a letter-writing campaign that saw hundreds of members write to deans and faculty members in support of the union. “Thousands of our members have gotten engaged in helping to raise awareness in the community,” Jaeger said. The union’s campaign had also been endorsed by many public figures including Massachusetts State Senator Pat Jehlen, Boston City Councilors Ruthzee Louijeune and Liz Breadon, and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey. The tentative deal also includes provisions to increase HUCTW assistance funds, which include child care, education, and transportation assistance. While HUCTW and the University had previously been using an independent, third-party mediator to facilitate negotiations, they had recently employed Harvard Economics professor Lawrence F. Katz. “Having an academic econo-
mist mediator was very helpful in the end,” Jaeger said. “I think our economist mediator played a very positive role.” Katz declined to comment on his involvement in the negotiations. The union had planned to hold a rally on May 24, a day before Harvard’s Commencement exercises. While organizers said this was not the only factor that contributed to the tentative agreement being reached, they said it played a role. “We had the opportunity to plan Commencement week activities, and Harvard was very interested in reaching a deal before that time came so that they could prevent those activities from taking place,” said Danielle Boudrow, a member of HUCTW’s executive committee. “It’s such a public moment for Harvard with so much attention on the campus, and they want it to be a happy event,” she added. “I think Harvard considers it a PR problem to have a labor dispute
out front in public during such a public event.” Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the University’s reasons for agreeing. HUCTW organizer Jaime Pepper said the tentative agreement was “the best possible agreement that we could get.” “We made sure that we exhausted every last dollar that we could possibly get at the negotiating table before we settled,” Pepper said. Boudrow called the agreement “excellent,” saying that organizers believe its pay raises will beat inflation over the duration of the agreement based on consulting economists with “a rock solid consensus” that inflation will decline. Despite the broad support, some members said they felt the tentative agreement does not adequately address inflationary pressures. HUCTW member Genevieve Butler said she thought the rais-
es included in the tentative agreement weren’t “nearly enough.” Butler predicted the tentative agreement would most likely pass since she believes “people are desperate to get something.” HUCTW President Carrie E. Barbash wrote in an email to The Crimson that it’s “fantastic” that lowest paid union members will receive raises of at least 7 percent in June and at least 6 percent in July. “I understand why some folks might be frustrated it’s not more — people have been struggling and need every dollar HUCTW can get, but we also feel great about the fact that our average member is getting around 6% in June and then another 4.7% a few weeks later in July,” she wrote. Members of union leadership, as well those who plan to vote against the tentative agreement, said they expect it to pass with overwhelming support. cam.kettles@thecrimson.com
Members of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers started weekly pickets outside Massachusetts Hall in February amid contract negotiations that began in April 2022. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
CFO Search Has Identified ‘Very Good Candidates,’ Pritzker Says BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN AND CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Harvard Corporation senior fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 said “several very good candidates” have been identified in the search for the University’s next chief financial officer. Pritzker, who helms the University’s highest governing board, said in a phone interview Monday that the search process for the next CFO is “mature” and “going well.” Harvard launched its search for a new chief financial officer six months ago after Vice President for Finance and CFO Thomas J. Hollister announced he would retire at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. Hollister has served in the role since joining Harvard in 2015. As the University’s top financial officer, Hollister steered Harvard through the financial challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. In a prescient move, Hollister led efforts to prepare for an economic recession, releasing a University-wide “recession playbook” in October 2019, just three months before the first Covid-19 case was detected in the
United States. Harvard’s next CFO will also be tasked with guiding the school through economic uncertainty as the U.S. economy continues to grapple with heightened inflation and the possibility of a recession. The new CFO will likely have to work closely with Harvard President-elect Claudine Gay in leading a new University-wide capital campaign, an initiative expected to be announced just a few years into her presidency. Hollister arrived at Harvard amid its previous capital campaign, which ultimately netted a historic $9.6 billion. Pritzker, however, said it is “unclear” if a new CFO will be appointed before Gay assumes her new post in Massachusetts Hall on July 1. “They have a group of good candidates,” Pritzker said. “I would hope that that is something that gets announced sooner rather than later — but exactly when, I don’t know.” Pritzker also said she does not know if Gay will announce her successor as Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean before she departs the role this July. “She and the Provost are very focused on it,” Pritzker said. “But I don’t know exactly when that will be complet-
ed.” In recent weeks, Gay appointed an interim dean for the School of Public Health and announced outgoing Harvard Divinity School Dean David N. Hempton will serve in the role until the end of August as the search for the school’s next dean continues. Gay has yet to announce who will serve as FAS dean or dean of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences when the positions vacate on July 1. Pritzker said during the interview that ensuring a successful presidential transition is currently “top of mind for the Corporation.” “One of the most important things that we can do is to work with the new president, assuring that she has the support she needs to have her first year be successful,” she said. Pritzker said the Corporation “has been in dialogue” with Gay, and she meets personally with the President-elect every one to two weeks. “She and I have a regularly set call that we do, an engagement, and then we also speak between those times on topics as they arise,” she said. “I’m very, very, very excited about her leadership.” miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com claire.yuan@thecrimson.com
Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ‘81 introduced Claudine Gay as the University’s next president in a December event at Smith Campus Center. J. SELLERS HILL—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
