Harvard and HAW-UAW Agree on Intellectual Property Rights but Diverge on Time Limits and Immigration Protections

Harvard University and the Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers (HAW-UAW) union, representing approximately 3,600 non-tenure-track faculty and postdoctoral researchers, reached a tentative agreement on Tuesday to enshrine intellectual property protections in their first collective bargaining contract. This agreement codifies existing University policies regarding authorship, inventions, and instructional materials for non-tenure-track faculty.

The union and University have been engaged in contract negotiations since September 2024, surpassing 30 bargaining sessions. While the intellectual property article was accepted, Harvard introduced a revised article on academic promotions that includes procedures for time caps—term limits restricting lecturers and preceptors to maximum appointments of two, three, or eight years depending on their role.

Harvard reaffirmed its position to replace these time caps with a tiered promotion system, rejecting the union’s proposal to eliminate the “preceptor” classification. The union argues that abolishing the preceptor title and merging those positions into the lecturer classification would remove an arbitrary distinction.

Sara M. Feldman, a HAW-UAW bargaining committee member and preceptor in Yiddish within the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, explained that preceptors typically teach skills-based courses, whereas lecturers are expected to perform teaching roles more akin to professors. Feldman noted, however, that the distinction often does not reflect differences in qualifications, stating, “They claim that doesn’t require as much credentials, but actually, if you look at the ads, it kind of does.”

Immigration protections for non-citizen workers remain a significant point of contention. The union presented a counterproposal requiring immigration enforcement authorities to obtain a judicial warrant before entering private University spaces and prohibiting Harvard from disclosing any employee’s location to immigration enforcement.

Harvard previously countered the union’s immigration proposals in March 2025, maintaining language that withholds faculty information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement but rejecting broader union demands. Feldman expressed the union’s desire to codify Harvard’s existing immigration policies within the contract, similar to the approach taken with intellectual property protections. She stated, “If you expect that this is a longstanding policy, then it shouldn’t be a problem to put it into the contract.”

Other longstanding issues, including time caps for non-tenure-track faculty, remain unresolved. Although Harvard agreed in January to remove time caps for lecturers and preceptors, it proposed increasing their maximum courseload by at least one additional class section annually under the Workloads article.

Feldman indicated that the union would need to reach agreements on the Workloads and Titles and Classifications articles to fully resolve the time caps issue.

With over 30 bargaining sessions completed, Feldman emphasized the union’s hope that Harvard’s governing Corporation will collaborate in good faith on major outstanding articles, particularly non-citizen worker rights. She remarked, “We hope that the Corporation will want to work together with us to mitigate the problems that come with visa issues and immigration enforcement so that people can do their work.”