Welcome to the Berklee College of Music & Boston Conservatory at Berklee Staff Union!
We are members of Berklee’s staff from across all departments, coming together as a unified front in order to make the changes we want to see in our workplace.
NEWSLETTER: May 2026
Hello fellow organizers! As the academic year winds down for some of us and starts ramping up for others (fiscal year deadlines, anyone?), we…
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What are our goals?
An Impactful Grievance Process
For many years, we have felt the struggle that accompanies negotiations with administration. We have often found the lines of communication to be unnecessarily challenging and the responses given noncommittal at best. Even the ability to report discomfort and harassment in the workplace is severely limited. Through collective bargaining, we hope to facilitate better and more meaningful conversations with Berklee leadership.
Staff Retention
In order to preserve institutional knowledge and promote positive community building, it is paramount that we foster an environment that encourages staff to stay at Berklee for longer periods of time. With frequent staff turnover and little time given to train replacements, not only do we lose operational knowledge, but we also lose the opportunity to make lasting connections with our coworkers.
We also want to redefine what are considered “temporary” and “casual” positions. Many staff members still considered “temporary” have worked at Berklee for months, or in some cases years, without any benefits, promotion, or promise of change in status.
Better Wages and benefits
Part of staff retention involves providing competitive wages and equitable benefits that would make working here both desirable and sustainable. Compared to similar institutions such as Emerson, Julliard, the New England Conservatory, Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard, many positions at Berklee are being paid below what would be considered competitive, or even industry standard, rates.
Furthermore, staff members are not given adequate sick leave, forcing us to choose between coming to work in precarious states or using our only vacation days as sick time off. We also have very little say in what insurance plans the college chooses on our behalf.
Healthy and Manageable Workloads
Every department has felt the strain of being expected to keep up with business as usual despite chronic understaffing, particularly after the mass layoffs of September 2025. These layoffs were made without proper notice or plans to redistribute work accordingly. This not only has an effect on staff members’ mental health and wellbeing, but also on the student experience, as the inefficiency accompanying overwork is severely noticeable. Now, we are left to shoulder the blame and frustration from our campus and communities while the administration provides inadequate support.
It is crucial to note that no unionized staff members (members of IBEW 2222, the Studio Ops union) were affected by the Fall 2025 layoffs. This speaks to the effectiveness of unionization as a way to protect against mass layoffs. We also hope to advocate for the hiring of additional staff in crucial positions that have been vacant for too long.
Agency to respond to unreasonable Federal, State, City and Institutional Policies
We live in a time of extreme injustice and political upheaval. As a union, we hope to use our strength in numbers to protect those closest to us and take a stand for the things that matter to us. This includes a unified response to the rollback of DEI initiatives and to ICE activity on campus. We also have the potential to spearhead divestment campaigns, such as from fossil fuels and forced generative AI use in creative spaces.
