Grad Students, Academic Workers Rally at Science Center as HGSU-UAW Sets Strike Authorization Vote

Around 200 graduate students and academic workers rallied outside the Science Center on Wednesday, threatening another strike as contract negotiations between Harvard and its graduate student union stretch past a year and a half.

The Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers will open a strike authorization vote on Monday, less than four months after ending a 40-day walkout without a contract.

Union leaders argued Harvard had gone back to delaying after a promising summer at the bargaining table.

“After the summer, in which we made progress, we’ve seen Harvard return to its stonewalling and its delaying,” HGSU-UAW Vice President Evan R. Lemire said. “In the last two sessions during the fall with the University, we’ve seen no proposals.”

The two sides have reached tentative agreements on nine articles, including retaliation protections for workers who file grievances and a requirement that appointment letters disclose workers’ funding sources, according to Lemire.

But several core issues remain unresolved, including wages, protections for non-citizen workers, an independent grievance process for harassment and discrimination cases, and union-administered benefit funds.

Lemire said the walkout showed the union that the threat of a strike is one of its most effective tools.

“What our experience of last spring taught us is that Harvard moves based on our strike power, and that’s why, as Denise announced, we’re moving towards a strike authorization vote beginning next Monday to build a strike threat to win the fair contract that we need,” he said.

HGSU-UAW President Denish K. Jaswal said Harvard’s proposed pay offers do not align with the wealth of the University.

“Harvard is the richest university in the world, and yet none of our workers earn a living wage,” Jaswal said.

She pointed to peer institutions that she said offer better compensation despite having smaller endowments.

“Johns Hopkins, Brown, Dartmouth, Yale, and Princeton all have similar endowments — actually, smaller endowments — and they’re able to provide their student workers with fair pay and meaningful benefits,” Jaswal said. “Harvard has the money. No one is doubtful that Harvard has the money, and so Harvard is making a choice.”

At a press conference before the rally, workers described how financial strain has weighed on their academic careers. Some said they had to choose between covering basic expenses and funding their research.

Ashley N. Scott, an anthropology researcher, said low pay threatens both fairness and the quality of Harvard’s scholarship.

“I am deeply aware of how fortunate I am to do this work at Harvard,” Scott said. “But the economic structure supporting this work is profoundly outdated. Economic insecurity is both an equity problem and a threat to academic excellence.”

Danica M. Truscott, a preceptor in the East Asian Languages and Civilizations department, said the University has drifted from its commitment to teaching and research.

“The Harvard Corporation is not keeping their promise to facilitate the highest teaching and learning,” Truscott said. “Instead, the corporation sets up a system of precarious positions, keeping us from concentrating on our work, and instead, worrying about where our next paycheck will come from after the contracts are done.”

Spokespeople for the University did not respond to a request for comment.

HGSU-UAW is one of three Harvard unions still bargaining for new contracts. Last week, Harvard University Dining Services workers rallied outside the Smith Campus Center as their own negotiations stalled. The University now faces the prospect of coordinated strike action from three separate unions.

Lemire said HGSU-UAW has been in contact with the other two unions, and that leaders have discussed striking together.

“We do talk about the shared issues that we face, the same stonewalling tactics that the University has taken for each of these three unions in these contract fights,” Lemire said.

“We’re very much talking about the possibility of joint strike threats and joining our organizing forces to win fair contracts for our workers,” he added.

—Staff writer José Luis Ortega Castro can be reached at [email protected].