Howard University reaches deal with faculty to avert strike

Howard University has reached a tentative deal with a labor group that represents more than 300 of its faculty members to avert a planned strike. 

University officials in a statement on Wednesday confirmed that they have reached a three-year agreement with SEIU Local 500, the labor union that represents the university’s full-time lecturer and adjunct faculty.

“We have stood firm in our commitment to respect the bargaining process that our union-faculty are entitled to, and it is in the spirit of that commitment that our leaders remained in hours-long negotiations until an agreement was reached. Our contingent faculty are a respected part of our institution,” the university said in its statement. “We share the collective goal of educating our students and today, because of this agreement and efforts to bargain in good faith on both sides, we will achieve that goal uninterrupted.”

In its own statement, SEIU Local 500 said the deal will be subjected to a vote by its membership in the next coming weeks, calling the agreement a  “historic achievement for improving the lives of teaching faculty, and strengthening the Howard community as a whole.”

The new agreement comes as talks between the union and the school have dragged for the last few years, with union leaders having previously accused school officials of “bad-faith bargaining,” according to The Washington Post.

Union leaders have threatened to conduct a three-day work stoppage if a deal wasn’t reached with school officials, the Post noted. 

The ongoing battle between the two sides has led to non-union faculty members and students activists, who conducted a weeks-long protest against the school administration last fall, to voice their opinion. 

This comes as an anonymous letter addressed to newly hired professor Nikole Hannah-Jones last year detailed many issues Howard faculty faced, including low wages and a policy that requires faculty to reapply for their positions at the end of each school year.