This story is developing and will be updated.
The Wellesley non-tenure track faculty union, known as the Wellesley Organized Academic Workers (WOAW), has started a strike authorization vote. WOAW has been bargaining with Wellesley College since May 2024.
Eligible voters in this election include instructors, lecturers and Mellon postdoctoral fellows who are currently employed by Wellesley College. If the vote passes with a two-thirds majority, the union’s bargaining committee is authorized to call for a strike if necessary.
According to WOAW, a yes vote in the Strike Authorization Vote is an opportunity to “declare forcefully that unless [the College] make[s] significant progress towards a fair contract, they can expect a strike to follow.”
The call for the Strike Authorization Vote from WOAW is coming after claims that the College has stalled on major core-bargaining issues, particularly those related to the reappointment of faculty, discrimination and harassment protections, and compensation. According to a graph on their website, the College has not responded to WOAW’s counter on issues related to titles, discrimination and harassment procedures and academic freedom in over 100 days.
The current proposal from the college would require non-tenure track faculty “to teach five courses to retain [their] current salaries,” which, faculty argues, would raise workloads by 25%.
Wellesley College’s union bargaining website states that a change to a five course load for non-tenure track faculty would not be the equivalent of a 25% workload rise. According to the College, the “proposal is consistent with the teaching load at the majority of peer institutions, where lecturers teach five to six courses per academic year.”
The College also states, in a webpage on Non-Tenure Track Unionization at Wellesley, that with the proposed WOAW compensation plan, “the cost of wages and benefits would more than double, from $12 million to at least $24 million, not including proposals for $5 million in additional benefits.”
The Wellesley News reached out to the College with a request for comment. The College stated that they have no further comment at this time beyond the email they sent to faculty members.
The election for the strike authorization vote is ongoing from 7:00 a.m. on Feb. 14 to 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 20. Results will be announced the next day on Friday, Feb. 21.
WOAW and the College have met for 19 bargaining sessions as of Feb. 10 and have reached 15 tentative agreements out of 50 proposals, including health and safety, intellectual property, and workplace and materials.
Contact the editor responsible for this story: Sazma Sarwar
