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Non-tenure-track faculty members at Howard University called off a planned three-day strike early Wednesday after securing a tentative first union contract deal. No details on the agreement were immediately available, but Howard’s Service Employees International Union–affiliated lecturers and adjuncts have been campaigning for raises and better pay relative to their peers at other Washington, D.C.–area institutions; lecturers said they hadn’t gotten a raise in more than five years, and adjuncts said they were among the lowest paid in the city. Other union demands included opportunities for qualified adjuncts to become full-time lecturers as positions become available, for adjuncts to teach three courses per semester in order to receive health insurance, and multiyear contracts for full-timers. The union called the agreement a “historic victory.”
Howard said in a statement, “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. 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.”
