[[{“value”:”Tufts’ full-time faculty union held a rally Monday morning to mark the beginning of the two day strike.
Maxine Bouvier & Vanessa Bartlett
MEDFORD– Full-time lecturers at Tufts University started their two-day strike Monday morning following a strike authorization vote of 94%. Lecturers, members of SEIU-509, have been bargaining for 10 months with the university for liveable wages and fair workloads.
Faculty’s current demands are a 3.5% annual increase after an initial adjustment for cost of living, along with a reduction in unmanageable workloads. As it stands, Tufts offers a 2.5% merit raise that has remained stagnant. The average full-time lecturer salary is at or below 80% of the area median income (depending on household size).
According to biology lecturer Helen McCreary, Tufts salaries are also not on par with those of peer institutions.
“If you adjust for cost of living, we’re the second lowest. And even if you look, rather than looking at peer institutions, adjusting for cost of living, if you look at other universities in this area that are research heavy institutions, we’re also the second lowest.”
Picketers marched to the Medford/Tufts green line stop, where they picketed for an hour.
Low salaries have meant that many full time lecturers are unable to afford to live nearby the university. As housing costs in the Greater Boston area have continued to skyrocket, these faculty members typically commute an hour plus to teach at Tufts. This affords lecturers less time to spend with their families, and with their students.
On top of financial struggles, lecturers say they are overburdened with large class sizes as Tufts continues to up enrollment targets. McCreary’s intro biology classes have ballooned to 480-550 students, class sizes she says Tufts simply does not have the space to accommodate.
“I’m excited about Tufts having more students, the students are phenomenal, but that increased enrollment needs to come with more support for teaching,” says McCreary.
Lecturers, whose job duties include teaching, mentoring students, and carrying out other service work feel that they are not able to deliver on the high quality of education that Tufts promises to its students under these conditions.
“Students pay tuition, some of the highest in the country, but we don’t see that tuition being reinvested back into providing a quality education. Because, you know, we certainly are not having more faculty to teach more students. They’re saying ‘do more with less,’ says striking lecturer Penn Loh.
Somerville City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr. on the picket line.
Faculty on strike say the Tufts community has been deeply supportive of their efforts. Students see that they are overworked, and families are frustrated to see the high tuition costs they pay are not put into their students’ education.
A Tufts sophomore, Ben, who came out to support the full time lecturers union on the picket line, shared his reasoning:
“I want my faculty members to be able to support themselves easily, to not have to make long commutes, so that they can be, like, good teachers.”
Lecturers have also received support from local elected officials, including Somerville City Councillor Willie Burnley Jr., state representative Erika Uyterhoven, and Zach Bears of the Medford City Council, all of whom were present at the picket on Monday.
“It is incredibly frustrating to see that there are multiple unions currently rallying, fighting for their rights at Tufts when we know that they have a surplus of 34 million this past year. They have the money to support their workers and are making the choice to not,” said Burnley.
As McCreary puts it, “Our working conditions are students learning conditions.”
Regarding the decision to strike, Loh said it was a tough choice. “I really didn’t want to have to take an action like this, but in a lot of ways we felt like this was the only way for us to send a clear message that we are not going to do an either or, either you get a better workload or better pay. We actually need both.”
“Our learning conditions = profs’ teaching conditions!” one sign reads.
Maxine Bouvier is a member of Boston DSA.
Vanessa Bartlett is the vice-chair of the Working Mass editorial board and a member of Boston DSA.
“}]]