On Friday, Sept. 5, the Wellesley Organized Academic Workers (WOAW) announced the ratification of its first contract with Wellesley College. The new contract features changes including a four-course load, new titles for Wellesley’s non-tenure track (NTT) faculty and a dining benefit for students to invite their faculty for a meal. This agreement marks a historic milestone for NTT faculty, with the vote reaching an overwhelming majority approval vote of 98.77%. This was out of the 89% of NTT faculty who voted – a record high voter turnout rate for the union. 

This contract concluded a 15-month-long bargaining process that included over 40 hours of bargaining and a 29-day-long strike this past spring. 

The WOAW bargaining team consisted of four NTT faculty members who were democratically elected from among union members, as well as one United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) representative. 

The College’s team included two lawyers, General Counsel, HR Director Carolyn Slaboden, Director of Labor Relations Donna Scally, and Dean of Academic Affairs Megan Núñez. Senior administration, including the College President, Provost, and trustees, were also involved in the decision-making process.

Earlier this year, WOAW-UAW held a 29-day strike after failed negotiations with the College. The strike caused disruptions to classes and campus events – including the postponement of the Hilary Rodham Clinton Center Summit – and affected faculty pay and benefits, student visas and student credits. The Union ended the strike after a unanimous vote by the WOAW’s bargaining team, citing the need to protect vulnerable members from “credible threats,” according to Paul Martorelli, Lecturer of Political Science, in an interview at the time. 

On Aug. 19, WOAW-UAW sent out an email titled “We want a contract, NOT another strike.” The email claimed that at the time, the college had been “soliciting lists of prior applicants for Wellesley faculty positions and actively reaching out to people outside of Wellesley to offer hypothetical short-term teaching opportunities.”

10 days later, on Aug. 29, the College and WOAW-UAW released their first joint statement declaring a tentative agreement. Representatives from WOAW-UAW were unable to comment to The Wellesley News until this past Friday, following the official ratification of the contract.

Contract Highlights

Compensation:

The contract raises the starting salary for NTT faculty by 14.7 percent, from $63,000 to roughly $74,000, with an additional 10% increase on average for the WOAW bargaining unit. Some long-serving faculty will receive increases of between 30% to 50%, which union representatives say addresses longstanding inequalities.

Job Security:

NTT faculty will now receive a Presumption of Reappointment after two successful reviews in the beginning of a five-year contract. While WOAW did not secure its proposed “certificate of continuing employment,” a process similar to tenure, the agreement does outline stronger protections against nonrenewal. 

Workload:

Workload was one of the most divisive points over the last two years between the two groups. Initially, WOAW proposed maintaining a four-course teaching load for all NTT non-visiting faculty, while the College pushed for a mandatory five-course workload without significant pay increase for new hires. 

“We did not want future hires to have worse conditions than present hires,” explained Senior Lecturer Erin Battat, Writing Program professor and member of the WOAW bargaining team. Battat describes the final agreement as “a true compromise and an improvement on the current system.”

Under the contract, resident faculty may choose to make a one-time choice to either keep a four-course load or shift to five courses. Those who choose the five-course shift will receive an additional $12,000 added to the base salary. This clause does not interact with the guaranteed raise for all faculty. 

“This is a real choice. [Faculty] are not forced to take on an extra class in order to see economic benefits from this contract. [Faculty] can legitimately choose whether [they] want to stay at four or go to five,” Battat said.

Battat also noted that the Union rejected creating tiers in pay and workload. Last spring, the College proposed that current NTT faculty would continue their four-course load, while new faculty would have their load increased to five courses.

“You would have two people in the same position with two different workloads who are receiving the same starting salary. And that was not acceptable to us,” Battat said.

The contract also includes protections to ensure that faculty who choose four courses are not replaced by those teaching five. Instead, seniority is factored into reappointment decisions. Furthermore, the agreement recognizes four courses as full-time for the purposes of insurance and healthcare-related benefits. Previously, a fifth course was compensated with a $10,000 stipend that did not count toward retirement contributions. Under the new system, the $12,000 increase is built into base pay, compounds annually and contributes to retirement.

Faculty Titles:

The contract introduces new titles for NTT faculty, including “Assistant Teaching Professor,” “Associate Teaching Professor,” “Teaching Professor,” “Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor,” “Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow” and “Newhouse Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing,” according to their new tentative contract. These titles replace former titles,  such as “Lecturer” and “Instructor.”

Battat described the change as “largely symbolic” but important for reducing confusion and inequities across departments. 

“The titles of lab instructor and lecturer are often associated with adjunct teaching, which has a connotation of being temporary, part-time, and having a kind of career outside of academia where you come in and teach a course … That is not at all what the role of most non-tenure track faculty at Wellesley are. We are career faculty,” Battat said.

Furthermore, the union noted that this change will positively impact both students who request letters of recommendation and younger faculty members who are on the job market, since the new titles better explain the significance and credibility of the NTT faculty.

Impact on Students:

The new contract also mentions a dining benefit for students, allowing all students two extra guest passes for faculty and guests. Union members expect broader impacts to be felt in classrooms and campus life, pointing to improved morale and a stronger sense of belonging among faculty.

“I think that relationships and community are the foundation of an education, and when you have faculty who feel valued, who feel like they belong, who feel like their roles as teaching-focused faculty and educators are fairly compensated and supported and not as precarious as it used to be, then you’re going to notice that in the classroom and the kind of energy and spirit that faculty brings with them,” Battat said.

What’s next?

Battat described the strike as instrumental in securing the contract, while also acknowledging it strained relations with administration. She said that students were widely supportive, and many tenure-track faculty members offered solidarity. Both union members and administrators have expressed desires to move toward more collaborative communication. 

“My first reaction is just gratitude for students for supporting us, being there with us, doing the work of trying to understand the situation. I am so proud to be a professor here at Wellesley. All of the struggle of negotiating this contract is worth it because I get to be in the classroom with students.” Battat said.

Looking forward, Battat stated that WOAW-UAW plans to implement the contract with the College, elect an executive board, form a union-management committee that will meet every two months, and launch a membership card drive. The union also aims to strengthen ties with tenured faculty as a part of ongoing efforts to build community. 

“One of our goals as organizers is to begin to build and strengthen our alliances with tenure stream faculty,” she said, noting that many tenured faculty supported the union during the strike. 

She emphasized that increased communication will be key moving forward: “One of the tactics of employers is to divide groups, and they can do this by controlling communication channels … I hope that people will enter this year with a spirit of curiosity and ask about our experience and our goals and what we’re all about.”

 “As far as my message to the broader community, faculty and the administration, it would be that we are confident that this contract is really going to make Wellesley a better place, and we need our partners and our community in order for that to happen.”