From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard withheld annual raises and performance bonuses from unionized academic workers across the University this summer, prompting Harvard Law School clinical instructors to file an unfair labor practice charge late last month alleging the move violated federal labor law. Union representatives said they knew of no Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers members in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Medical School, or Harvard Divinity School who received the raises awarded to non-union employees.
At the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, employees represented by HAW-UAW were informed by the institute’s human resources department that they would not receive the annual performance bonus or the July 1 salary increase, according to an email obtained by The Crimson... To prevent unilateral decisions that could undermine the bargaining process, employers are required under the NLRA to maintain status quo terms of employment while a contract is under negotiation. But the central dispute between the union and Harvard is whether Harvard’s history of awarding annual raises established a status quo the University was required to continue.
“You have to look at all the facts,” said Risa L. Lieberwitz, a professor of labor and employment law at Cornell University. “Is there a pattern that was established, and if it was interrupted, did that change the nature of the status quo?” Harvard has argued that maintaining the status quo means keeping wages constant until compensation is settled in bargaining...
Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/8/6/haw-withheld-raises-bonuses/.
