Unionized full-time lecturers in the School of Arts and Sciences rallied on Monday and Tuesday during a two-day walkout, following 10 months of negotiations with the Tufts administration. The 122 Arts and Sciences lecturers, represented by Service Employees International Union Local 509, seek salary adjustments to compensate for rising costs of living in the greater Boston area and increases in student enrollment.
At 10 a.m. on Monday, lecturers gathered on the lower Mayer Campus Center steps. Undergraduate and graduate students, lecturers and local officials from Medford and Somerville joined in a total of over 150 participants.
According to the Full-time Lecturers union, the cost of living for full-time lecturers increased by 21% since 2020 while salaries only increased by 13.1%. SEIU members argue their average salary when adjusted for the cost of living is well below the adjusted salaries of peer institutions and makes some lecturers eligible for publicly subsidized affordable housing programs.
Helen McCreery, a union member and full-time lecturer in the biology department at the rally, explained the motivation behind the walkout.
“The administration’s proposals have been really frustrating to us, especially with respect to salary. So we decided to take this collective action to show the administration how united we are and that they need to take us seriously and come back to the table with serious proposals,” McCreery said.
On top of advising work, McCreery currently teaches 480 students. “Tufts doesn’t even have a classroom [to] accommodate that many students, or even two sections,” McCreery said.
Quinnlyn Murphy and Sophie Cash, graduate students in the School of Arts and Sciences at the rally, said they felt the need to advocate for their professors.
“This is our second semester here, but we’ve seen it just in the time that we’ve been here, that larger class sizes make it harder for the professors. We’ve heard that from professors,” Murphy said. “We’ve heard from second-years that it’s different this year, and professors are struggling to maintain that same quality — which is why we came here in the first place.”
Both Murphy and Cash said they believe an updated contract for their professors would directly improve the quality of their education.
“I want to build relationships with my professors. That’s why I came to a university like Tufts,” Cash said. “And that’s harder when they just have less time for themselves and for the things that they need to do in their lives.”
Katie Mattaini, a steward on the contract action committee of the bargaining team and a full-time biology lecturer, explained the key struggles of the bargaining process.
“The administration has only offered us $250 more [annually] from the start in April until now, despite us bringing lots of data about how underpaid we are compared to peers of Tufts,” Mattaini said at the rally. “They insist that any raises should be based on merit, and we don’t think that someone should have to be doing an extraordinary job just to keep up with the cost of living.”
State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, Medford City Councilor Zac Bears and Somerville City Councilors Willie Burnley Jr. and Ben Ewen-Campen also participated in the rally.
“From Somerville, Medford, across the state — all of us have your back and we will not step down until you all get that fair contract you deserve,” Uyterhoeven said to the crowd of community members in a speech.
“It's important to Medford that the people who work here are treated fairly, that they can afford to live in Medford, and it's important to the student community,” Bears said. “I really strongly believe that if local residents, Tufts students and Tufts workers can come together, we can get Tufts to make better decisions and be a better neighbor.”
On Monday, some carpenters’ union members drove down Talbot Avenue, past the lower Campus Center, honking in mutual support for the FTLs. The members of the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters have protested Tufts’ labor practices since last spring, claiming the university permitted wage theft of workers in campus development projects.
Catherine Pena, a member of Carpenters Local 330, commented on the solidarity between the FTLs and the carpenters’ union.
“I think we need to stick together and show them that enough is enough for working people. We shouldn’t be robbed of our wages,” Pena said.
From the Campus Center, protesters marched to the corner of College Avenue and Boston Avenue, picketing until around 12 p.m.
The walkout also drew the attention of the Tufts Community Union Senate, which issued a statement requesting Tufts Board of Trustees deliver a fair contract to the FTLs.
On Tuesday, the FTLs picketed in front of the Medford/Tufts MBTA station from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. They protested again at 4 p.m. in front of Ballou Hall where University President Sunil Kumar’s and Provost Caroline Genco’s offices are located.
“We were really proud of the community support for the cause,” Brenna Heitzman, a union member and senior lecturer in the Department of Romance Studies, said at the picketing on Tuesday morning. Heitzman called the rally a success.
“We’re really hopeful that the administration sees it, sees the support we have and understands what role we play for the Tufts community,” Heitzman said.
On Wednesday afternoon, union members directly addressed Kumar and Genco at an Arts and Sciences faculty meeting in Cohen Auditorium. The FTLs asked whether the president and provost would be willing to meet with union members.
“The president responded, and he said that he’s willing to meet with members of the faculty, however, there is a prescribed process for the bargaining that’s happening. So, he didn’t make any act of a commitment to meet with us as a unit,” Penn Loh, distinguished senior lecturer and union member, said after the meeting.
In response to the walkout, Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations, wrote in a statement to the Daily, “We hope to return to the table to continue negotiations with our full-time lecturers as early as next week.”
In the last year, Tufts full-time lecturers, School of the Museum of Fine Arts professors of the practice and School of Engineering workers, have all been in the process of bargaining for their respective contracts, protested in solidarity last October. SMFA PoPs are currently bargaining for an updated contract. SOE workers ratified their first contract with the university on Dec. 5, 2024.
Photos by John Murphy and Dylan Fee.