Harvard and Union Reach Tentative Agreement After Months of Negotiations
Source: The Crimson
By BRANDON J. DIXON
After tense negotiations, Harvard and its largest employee union have reached a tentative settlement on a three-year long contract that comes nearly four months past the expiration of their previous agreement.
The new contract—which is pending vote by members of the organization, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers—provides union employees new health plan features and a new premium contribution tier for individuals earning less than $55,000, according to HUCTW Director Bill Jaeger. The settlement will also provide employees in the union with annual pay increases, an element of their previous 2013 contract with Harvard, which ended on Sept. 30. Pay increases are scheduled for Oct. of 2016 and 2017, and union members will receive retroactive pay increases for 2015.
The union will circulate full details about a new health plan and the tentative changes to HUCTW’s contract to members this week, according to Carrie Barbash, a union organizer for HUCTW.
The prolonged round of contract negotiations—which began last spring—has been contentious, requiring dozens of meetings between Harvard and Union representatives, as well as outside mediators once it became clear discussions would extend past the expiration of the previous contract. In mid-December, Jaeger called the back and forth “very frustrating.” Negotiations for the previous contract, which settled in 2013, lasted the longest time span in the union’s history.
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Union members, students, and community members marched to Memorial Church on Thursday to support the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW). Speakers called for salary increases and health care benefits from the University. ANN-MARIE Y BARRETT
Read more: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/1/25/HUCTW-and-Univesity-reach-tentative-agreement/