City Council go on the record urging Harvard administration to end the practice of time caps for non-tenure track teaching faculty and urging Harvard administration to acknowledge the labor contribution and employee status of all its researchers, regardless of funding source, and contractually recognize these researchers’ protected right to union representation

Education, research, and academic inquiry are values intimately connected to the lives, careers, and passions of Cantabrigians; and

The City of Cambridge continually recognizes the importance of labor unions to workplace and economic justice; and

Harvard University, as Cambridge’s largest employer, has an outsized control on the living conditions available to academic laborers residing in Cambridge; and

Harvard University’s practice of short-term contracts for many academic researchers generates substantial artificial precarity for these employees and for the Cambridge economy; and

Harvard University’s practice of time capping non-tenure track teaching faculty encourages artificial turnover among Cambridge residents; and

Nearly 2600 Harvard employees represented by the Harvard Academic Workers

(HAW) have been in good faith bargaining for fair contracts for 22 months; and

These employees have faced an outsized burden of federal government attacks on higher education, experiencing extensive layoffs, threats to visa status, and increased workload; and

These unions have taken active steps towards fighting federal attacks on higher education while also bargaining for fair treatment by their employer; and

Harvard University administration is taking advantage of Trump’s anti-worker National Labor Relations Board to attempt to strip union protections from academic laborers through misclassification, refusing to recognize the employee status of many researchers, and adopting expansive interpretations of supervisory status in labor law; and

This Council has previously passed resolutions supporting the rights of HAW’s sister union Harvard Graduate Student Union (HGSU) who are facing similar attacks and slow negotiations from Harvard’s administration; now therefore be it

That the City Council go on the record urging Harvard administration to end the practice of time caps for non-tenure track teaching faculty; and be it further

That the City Council go on the record urging Harvard administration to acknowledge the labor contribution and employee status of all its researchers, regardless of funding source, and contractually recognize these researchers’ protected right to union representation; and be it further

That the City Council go on the record in strong opposition to the Harvard administration applying expansive definitions of supervisory status, and arbitrary distinctions based on funding sources as a means to strip workers of their union rights; and be it further

That the City Council go on record urging the Harvard administration to bargain with HAW with the intent to address the concerns and pressures these workers face by means including, but not limited to, fair compensation, grievable abuse protections, and job security; and be it further

That, if the Harvard administration fails to address HAW workers’ concerns in a timely manner, the City Council go on record in support of a strike by HAW and urging the Harvard administration to meaningfully make steps to prevent a work stoppage; and be it further

That the City Clerk be and hereby is requested to forward suitably engrossed copies of this resolution to Harvard University administrators and President Alan Garber on behalf of the entire City Council.

In City Council April 13, 2026. Adopted as Amended by a yea and nay vote:-

Yeas 8; Nays 0; Absent 0; Present 1.-

Attest:- Paula M. Crane, Interim City Clerk

A true copy; ATTEST:-

Paula M. Crane

Interim City Clerk