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Some classes canceled as more than 100 Tufts lecturers launch two-day strike
Lecturers will hold a rally at the Mayer Campus Center Monday at 10 a.m. to kick off the two-day strike, which will go through Tuesday.
More than 100 educators at Tufts University will strike for two days starting Monday, canceling classes for some undergraduate students two weeks into the semester.
SEIU Local 509, the union that represents 121 full-time lecturers at the Medford college’s School of Arts & Sciences, said the lecturers voted 94 percent in favor to strike after 10 months of “unsuccessful contract negotiations.”
A Tufts spokesperson said the lecturers who cancel class, lab, or lectures on Monday and Tuesday are expected to “take steps to ensure the academic integrity of the classes,” similarly to when a professor misses class due to an illness or other conflict.
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Classes taught by tenured or tenure-stream faculty, part-time lectures, professors of the practice or graduate teaching assistants are not affected, spokesperson Patrick Collins said in a statement to Boston.com.
Lecturers are planning a rally at the Mayer Campus Center at 10 a.m. Monday at to kick off the two-day strike. The union said the educators are asking for a 3.5 percent annual raise, a cost-of-living adjustment, and a reduction in workload.
The union said Tufts has not offered raises or COLAs to lecturers during negotiations, which “has resulted in salaries for full-time lecturers at Tufts being below 80% of the area’s median income, making them some of the lowest-paid faculty among their peer institutions.”
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Collins said that Tufts and SEIU are bargaining in good faith, but compensation and workload are still not settled.
“The university has a compensation and merit increase philosophy that it applies to all faculty and staff. This philosophy generally includes an interest in compensating faculty and staff with attention to the relevant external market and internal equity, among other factors,” Collins said. “We look forward to continuing to work with SEIU to arrive at an agreement.”
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