Wellesley Organized Academic Workers Ratify Contract After Groundbreaking Strike

After fifteen months of bargaining, the Wellesley Organized Academic Workers (WOAW-UAW) reached a tentative agreement with Wellesley College on Friday, which members voted to ratify today with 89% participation and 98.8% of the vote. Workers' courage, hard work, and solidarity, including a 29-day supermajority strike in the spring, resulted in substantive gains for members with workplace protections that set the standard for faculty in higher ed.

The agreement includes new titles, the first-ever dependent care benefit at the College, critical and new job security protections, paid time for union work, and more. The agreement also raises the starting salary for faculty by nearly 15% and addresses wage compression that resulted from a salary freeze instituted from 2008 until 2020. Overall, the contract provides a 10.6% salary increase for bargaining unit employees in the first year.

Congratulations to WOAW-UAW, soon to be UAW Local 3270!