Session 25, Day 4 on Strike: WOAW Rallies for a Better Wellesley
Dear members and supporters,
The College came to the table today completely unprepared to reach a comprehensive agreement after spending the past week focusing on breaking our strike, continuing their unlawful conduct, and dividing our community. The College is signaling to our members that it has no intention of living up to its mission and values as it works to increase our workload, deny us job security, and pay us less than a fair wage. We are willing to be responsive to the College’s alleged financial uncertainty, but we cannot do so at the expense of an increased workload, which would make us less effective teachers and isolate us from the community we love. We are fighting to improve working conditions across academia and establish Wellesley as a leader, not increase precarity by matching the current conditions—more work for insufficient pay with little to no job security—that so many workers have expressed are untenable across higher education. We have no doubt that if we raise the standard at Wellesley, other institutions will follow our lead.
In the proposals the College did bring, we saw movement towards our demands in ways that benefit our whole community. For instance, the College agreed to a $5K childcare benefit, committed to prevent bullying on campus, and gave more dining passes to students for the purpose of community building. This movement shows our collective power and is the direct result of our action. We call on the College to continue bargaining without delay to reach a fair agreement that will end the strike.
At the end of our session, we offered to extend the bargaining session or meet tomorrow, and the College declined. What’s worse, the College’s Bargaining Committee laughed as they walked out the door after we asked for more time to negotiate. There is nothing funny about what the College is doing to our community.
The College stalled for a week and spent their time disseminating fear across our community. We have spent our time rallying our community and preparing to bargain. Tonight, we emailed the College a second comprehensive package that includes counterproposals on all remaining articles. The College emailed our community tonight asking that we end our strike. Only one side has shown commitment to reaching an agreement and ending the strike, and it’s not the College. The ball is in their court.
Our unit is riding a wave of support after the success of our rally, which brought together hundreds of supporters including faculty, staff, students, alums, labor leaders, and political figures. Please join us on the picket line and come to our bargaining session on Thursday. Let the College know that they need to come prepared next time.
In Solidarity,
WOAW-UAW Bargaining Committee
Erin Battat
Katie Hall
Deb Bauer
Mike Mavros
Christa Skow
P.S. Check out this amazing letter of support from Wellesley’s College Government!
Looking to support us? Donate to our mutual aid fund to support our striking workers here and contact Wellesley’s senior leadership and express support for WOAW’s demands.