The Wellesley Organized Academic Workers (WOAW-UAW), the union representing Wellesley’s non-tenure track faculty, has agreed to end its strike, while continuing negotiations toward a final contract. The 300 non-tenured academics walked off the job on March 27. Their demands include maintaining a four-course workload for its members, and an increase in both salary and job security.
Striking faculty will return to classes on April 25.
“We are grateful to the WOAW-UAW’s bargaining team and members for coming to this decision. While the strike is ending, the critical work of negotiating a final contract that recognizes the significant contributions of our NTT faculty is continuing. Our next bargaining session is April 28,” College administration leaders said in a memo on the College’s unionization website.
For the past few weeks, union members and supporters that included tenured faculty and students held signs in front of Wellesley College’s pedestrian entrance at the corner of Central Street and Weston Road. The College maintained a visible police presence there, and at other entrances to the highly selective women’s college.
Union bargaining committee leadership in an update letter said, “As the semester comes to a close, we are ending our current strike and will return to the classroom tomorrow for the last week of class, with our strength established and our community stronger than ever. While we are returning to work, the fight is not over. We have yet to reach a final agreement, and we will not be worn down by Wellesley’s anti-worker tactics.”
MORE: Wellesley non-tenured faculty member strike begins (March 27, 2025 coverage)
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How about adding numbers to the story and more detail.
Are these folks under contract?
Does each person have a separate contract (no. of classes, salary, etc.)?
Are all departments involved (STEM)?
How long have they been at the college on average.?
Are their positions career-like jobs or just extra gigs?
Good points, Herb. The current story just gives a quick up date on where things stand with the strike. It’s possible a fleshed-out story may be forthcoming. Thanks for your comment and for reading Swellesley.
Hi Herb, I’m a student here. The NTT faculty unionized last year–they are negotiating with the college for their first union contract. Most NTT faculty right now are on contracts which run for a period of time. I’m not too familiar with contract details. All departments are involved in the strike–STEM especially because of lab instructors. Many NTT faculty have been at Wellesley for a very long time. I personally have NTT professors that have been here for over 10 and even 20 years. While some are new, many are very experienced .NTT track faculty work incredibly hard–it is beyond a typical full-time job. Teaching a class at Wellesley College is not a gig. Also I want to add, I am forever grateful to my wonderful and amazing NTT faculty who have been instrumental to my education.
I’m not always right and don’t know everything, but I hope I was able to provide some answers.
More details here from Swellesley’s original coverage: https://theswellesleyreport.com/2025/03/wellesley-college-non-tenured-faculty-members-on-strike-compensation-workload-are-big-issues/