Graduate Student Union Picketers Demonstrate Outside Harvard Yard

As graduates and guests lined up outside Harvard Yard before the start of Commencement exercises, roughly 20 Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers picketers gathered near Widener and Boylston gates, chatting, holding signs, beating a plastic bucket drum, and handing our fliers and pins urging affiliates to email Harvard administrators in support of the union’s contract demands.

The picket did not block students from entering the Yard. As members of the class of 2026 processed through Boylston Gate, union members continued chanting.

“We’re proud of you and that’s a fact,” they chanted, “but we still need a fair contract.”

After the undergraduate processing entered the Yard, approximately 30 union members continued moving between Yard entrances as graduate processing continued.

The moderation marked the latest action in HGSU’s Commencement week strike, including pickets outside Harvard College Class Day events Wednesday and a disruption of a Baccalaureate reception Tuesday.