The following message was sent to all HUCTW members on March 24, 2022.

Dear HUCTW Member,

We are writing to you today to share information and express concern about our fellow union members in the Harvard University Security, Parking, and Museum Guards Union (HUSPMGU), one of our sister unions at Harvard. HUSPMGU represents about 80 members who work as Parking Monitors for Harvard Campus Services and as Museum Attendants at the Harvard Art Museums.

For more than five years, HUSPMGU has actively sought to become a part of HUCTW and our two Unions’ leaders have long shared this goal. In several rounds of talks with leaders from our two unions in recent years, Harvard administrators have resisted our proposed plans to bring HUSPMGU members into HUCTW and cover their jobs under the HUCTW Agreement. Because this effort is an important and increasingly worrisome one, we are writing today to ask you to support our sister union, HUSPMGU, in ongoing efforts to win economic fairness and HUCTW inclusion.

HUSPMGU members work alongside HUCTW members in similar jobs and our interests at work are the same—jobs with fair pay, full benefits, work-life balance, security, and the opportunity to grow. Yet, as a result of their status as a small, independent union, HUSPMGU members have for decades suffered greatly substandard pay and benefits, lower than any other group of regular employees at the University. Their pay is hardly a living wage. At $17.69 per hour the HUSPMGU starting rate is 30-40% lower than entry-level pay for food service workers and custodians at the University—there is no logic to support this disparity. It is also a cause for concern that HUSPMGU members, who are predominantly people of color and immigrants, have the lowest pay of any employee group on campus.

You can read two recent statements from elected officials in Cambridge and Boston supporting HUSPMGU inclusion in HUCTW, as well as two recent news stories about the HUSPMGU inclusion struggle.

No one should work at Harvard every day and still struggle to make ends meet. HUSPMGU members deserve the same opportunities, benefits, and protections that all other regular employee groups at Harvard enjoy. There is no defensible reason why they should continue to work in the second-class situation they have endured for years, and we hope you will join us to help bring them into HUCTW.

Please note: In this March 24 letter above, we also asked HUCTW members to sign a statement of support for HUSPMGU. We are no longer gathering signatures for this statement, as HUSPMGU members are now a part of HUCTW! Thank you for your support!