25 days on strike, 12 hours of bargaining - we need your help
Dear WOAW Members and Supporters,
We have been on strike for the past 25 days, and the College has only bargained with us for twelve hours. As of April 20, they have scheduled no future sessions. It is clear that the College is stalling negotiations because they cannot explain or justify their proposal to increase our courseload by 25%, a move which would impact the entire College community.
Last week, the College presented “concepts” of a plan for implementing a five-course workload. These “concepts,” which can be seen here, make it abundantly clear that the College has not, in any serious way, considered how shifting from a four-course to a five-course workload will affect our faculty, students, and community members. After nearly one year of bargaining, 28 bargaining sessions amounting to over 100 hours of face-to-face negotiations, and 25 days on strike, it is deplorable that the College cannot answer any questions about the specifics of their proposal.
The College’s “concepts” underscore the disastrous effects their proposal would have on our workload and on our ability to follow through on Wellesley’s educational mission. Their “concepts” rely on department chairs reassigning advisees, but they have not discussed this with the department chairs or the tenure-stream faculty who would be taking on this responsibility. Their “concepts” rely on STEM departments overhauling lab curricula, but they have not assessed whether this overhaul would meet accreditation requirements or be pedagogically sound. And their “concepts” expect our faculty to turn down students who ask us to be major advisors, senior thesis advisors, independent study supervisors, and mentors; to reduce our office hours and individual student support—all without taking into consideration how these changes will drastically devalue the education that Wellesley promises.
Our members have repeatedly told us, the bargaining committee, that they will not ratify a contract with a 25% increase in workload. We cannot agree to an ill-formed plan that threatens those things that make Wellesley special, while worsening our working conditions. We will not agree to give future generations of Wellesley students less than what was given to the generations that came before.
At Thursday’s bargaining session, we presented the College with two options to end the strike: a one-year proposal with a starting salary of $78,000, or a three-year contract with a starting salary of $83,000. Both proposals have the status quo workload—a system that has worked for Wellesley for decades. Both proposals encourage the College to think through the effects of their own proposal on the community. Both proposals are fully executed contract language that can be signed by the College immediately.
The College’s commitment to slow-walking bargaining while pushing undeveloped proposals is completely unacceptable to our members, who are going without their paychecks, and to our students, who are going without their education. There is time for us to get back into the classroom—to review what students learned in the first ten weeks of the semester and create a meaningful final assessment, to connect with students and assign the grades they earned, and to send our seniors off into the world, and our first years, sophomores and juniors off for the summer knowing they will return to the world-class Wellesley education they expect.
The College has no plan for reaching an agreement that our members will ratify, and it is clear that student learning is not their priority. Rather than schedule additional bargaining sessions last week, the College stated they would email us a response to our proposals, but as of today, Sunday afternoon, we have not heard from them. At the end of Thursday’s bargaining session, we asked the College to schedule our next meeting. They said they couldn’t do that without talking to “their people.” Will you help us push the College to reach an agreement by contacting their people? Here’s how:
Continue calling and emailing the President, Provost, and Board of Trustees to demand the College agree to either of our proposed contracts and end the strike.
Join us on the picket line every weekday from 8:30 AM to 5 PM!
Alums:
Don’t cross our picket line! Let the College know that you will not attend events or reunion unless we reach an agreement. Use this link to sign this letter from alums in support of our campaign.
If you want help organizing or connecting with other alums, email woaw.uaw@gmail.com and we will connect you
Parents:
Continue calling and emailing the President, Provost, and Board of Trustees every day to demand a refund for your child’s lost education and to demand they reach an agreement that maintains the quality of the education Wellesley has promised.
In solidarity,
Katie Hall (‘84)
Christa Skow
Erin Battat
Deb Bauer (‘03)
Mike Mavros
WOAW-UAW Bargaining Committee