Live: Harvard’s Graduate Workers Strike as Negotiations Stall

Roughly 100 graduate student workers descended on Memorial Hall Sunday morning, spreading across all four entrances to Sanders Theatre ahead of Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76’s Visitas welcome address.

Demonstrators had been picketing in the Science Center plaza since 8 a.m. before moving to Memorial Hall in a coordinated effort to confront Garber on his arrival. Garber entered Sanders Theatre at around 10:45 a.m., ahead of the 11 a.m. address. Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 was also scheduled to speak at the event.

As prospective students and their families gathered inside, picketers circled the building’s entrances.

Graduate student workers plan to pause picketing Saturday before resuming demonstrations Sunday to coincide with Visitas, according to HGSU-UAW bargaining committee member Denish K. Jaswal.

Jaswal said Sunday’s picket will overlap intentionally with Visitas programming, noting that Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 is scheduled to address prospective students at 11 a.m. at the Science Center — the union’s main picketing location. Sunday’s demonstrations will be limited to Harvard’s main campus, Jaswal said, and will not extend to Longwood.

If no deal is reached before Tuesday’s scheduled bargaining session, the strike will continue Monday and Tuesday, according to Jaswal.

More than 100 Harvard faculty affiliates have signed a letter agreeing not to hire replacements for striking graduate students in a marked show of support for HGSU-UAW as its strike continues into the weekend.

The letter’s signatories — including both tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty — also committed to “not retaliate against” workers in HGSU-UAW, who are currently striking, and those in Harvard’s non-tenure-track faculty union, HAW-UAW, whose strike authorization vote is currently open.

In an April 3 email to departments’ Directors of Undergraduate Studies, obtained by The Crimson, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Gillian B. Pierce ’88 said that course heads could hire instructional staff to complete striking workers’ tasks — and that hired workers would receive additional pay. Teaching assistants, non-tenure-track faculty, non-striking course assistants and teaching fellows, and non-union staff could serve as potential replacements, pending approval from the Office of Undergraduate Education, Pierce wrote.

Striking graduate workers marched from the Yard to 124 Mt. Auburn St. on Friday afternoon to picket outside a Harvard Undergraduate Workers Union-United Auto Workers bargaining session.

HUWU-UAW, which represents students working in campus cafes, libraries, and the Harvard Foundation, unionized in October 2023. Negotiations over its first contract have stretched more than a year, with the two sides meeting only once in the fall semester.

”Our comrades, HUWU — the Harvard undergraduate workers’ union — is bargaining up there right now!” shouted Edan P. Larkin, a union organizer, to demonstrators outside.

A group of roughly 20 demonstrators relocated to University Hall on Friday afternoon, picketing in front of the John Harvard statue for the first time since the strike began on Tuesday.

Organizers circled the statue, beating drums and carrying union signage.

“I don’t know, but it’s been said, pay your workers fair instead,” they chanted.

Dozens of local and state elected officials backed Harvard’s unionized academic workers this week, signing an open letter that urged University leaders to reach fair contracts with HGSU-UAW and HAW-UAW.

The letter — addressed to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 and Provost John F. Manning ’82 — was presented at a Cambridge City Council meeting Thursday, as HGSU-UAW’s strike entered its third day and HAW-UAW’s strike authorization vote continued into its fourth week.

“These workers are the backbone of education and research at Harvard, and they deserve fair recognition of their work that sustains the critical mission of the University,” the letter read.

City and state officials joined striking graduate student workers at a rally in the Science Center Plaza on Thursday, lending support as the union’s walkout entered its third day.

Cambridge City Councilor Jivan G. Sobrinho-Wheeler, State Representative Mike L. Connolly, and state senate candidate Daniel A. Lander ’14 — who is challenging longtime state Sen. William N. Brownsberger ’78 — appeared alongside demonstrators, with several addressing the crowd.

Sobrinho-Wheeler told rallygoers that Cambridge officials stood with the union and tied the dispute to the city’s relationship with Harvard.

More than 130 demonstrators gathered at a midday rally in the Science Center Plaza on Thursday, marking the largest turnout of the graduate student strike so far as picketing briefly paused.

Ahead of the rally, protesters formed a loose circle outside the Science Center, holding signs and chanting while organizers led calls highlighting union demands, including third-party arbitration in Title IX cases.

“Do you trust Harvard to find itself guilty?” organizers shouted, drawing a response from the crowd.

Harvard deliveries have been disrupted since Tuesday morning as graduate student workers picket loading docks across campus — at times prompting drivers to turn away rather than cross the line.

Some delivery drivers declined to complete drop-offs after speaking with picketers, while others attempted to reroute shipments through alternate routes.

According to Evan R. Lemire, a HGSU executive board member, drivers from companies including UPS, USPS, Airgas, Taylor Oil, and Arrow Paper Corporation have been unable to access multiple docking sites in Cambridge since the strike began.

Harvard’s student union agreed to four additional bargaining sessions with Harvard, scheduled for May 14, May 29, June 9, and June 23 — more than three weeks after the University first proposed the dates on April 1.

HGSU-UAW bargaining committee member Denish K. Jaswal said the delay in accepting the session was partly due to logistical challenges, including coordinating a bargaining committee that spans multiple schools during the summer.

She also pointed to prior scheduling disputes: the union declined a January session proposed by Harvard and said the University did not accept three alternative dates it proposed.

The strike entered its third day Thursday with contract negotiations showing no clear signs of progress.

The current standoff follows a history of labor actions by the union. A 2021 strike ended after three days with a contract agreement, while a 29-day strike in 2019 marked a prolonged disruption to teaching and research. The union itself was founded in 2015 and certified in 2018.

The strike is driven by disputes over wages, protections for international student workers, and whether harassment and discrimination cases should be subject to third-party arbitration. The union has said its members will continue to withhold teaching and research duties until an agreement is reached.

A Harvard University police officer asked union organizers to relocate from outside a room on the 10th floor of the Smith Campus Center Wednesday afternoon, where they had been waiting to speak to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 after a reception.

HGSU-UAW bargaining committee member Denish K. Jaswal said union organizers waited for Garber to exit the event — a gathering of recipients of the Presidential Building Bridges Fund and other presidential initiatives — before the officer approached them.

When organizers asked which campus use policies they had violated, Jaswal said the officer “refused to elaborate, and they told us we simply had to leave.”

At around 3:50 p.m., nearly all demonstrators at the Science Center, Sever Hall, and Widener Library began marching through Harvard Yard, past University Hall, and into Harvard Square.

More than 100 picketers continued chanting as they circled past freshmen dormitories before exiting the Yard and regrouping in front of the Smith Campus Center.

The march marked the picketers’ first significant departure from the Science Center plaza, where they have maintained a steady presence since the strike began.

HGSU-UAW bargaining committee member Denish K. Jaswal said that Harvard’s campus use regulations did not significantly affect picketing plans, though they caused organizers to restrict megaphone use.

Harvard introduced a sweeping set of campus use rules in 2024 after a pro-Palestine encampment in the Yard, curtailing installations, “excessive noise,” and signage.

Two union officials said campus use rules now come up often in organizer meetings. According to Jaswal, the union informed Harvard’s Office for Labor and Employee Relations and campus police of its picketing plans, and no organizers have yet been told their actions violate the rules.

The union expanded its picket into Harvard Yard on the second day of the strike, with more than 20 demonstrators gathering outside Widener Library and a dozen more circling the entrance to Sever Hall.

The expansion came as nearly 100 union members continued circling the Science Center plaza around 3:30 p.m., matching the peak turnout from the first day of the strike.

“50 billion with a ‘B,’” demonstrators in front of Sever Hall chanted. “Pay me!”

Three hours into the picket, a group of ten demonstrators peeled away from the main tent outside the Science Center and headed toward CGIS South — marking the first time strikers extended their presence to the complex during the walkout.

Arriving at the building’s front entrance, the group circled in a tight loop.

“What do we want? Contracts! When do we want it? Now!” they chanted.

Harvard’s graduate student union began its second day on strike Wednesday morning, with roughly 20 picketers gathering at the Science Center as the walkout continued.

Around 8:30 a.m., demonstrators assembled in the Science Center plaza, where they set up a tent and began circling outside the building’s main entrance.

The strike centers on disputes over pay, workplace protections, and benefits. Union leaders have said some graduate workers earn as little as $26,300 annually and are calling for a $55,000 base pay floor, along with raises tied to inflation. They are also seeking stronger protections for international students, an independent process for handling harassment and discrimination complaints, and the restoration of benefits that expired with the previous contract in June 2025. (Harvard, however, has pushed back on the union’s characterization of compensation, saying that Ph.D. students receive at least $425,000 in total benefits over a minimum of five years.)

The Harvard Student Labor Action Movement delivered nearly 1,000 pamphlets to undergraduate dorms Monday night, aiming to inform students about ongoing labor organizing on campus and encourage support for the graduate student strike.

The pamphlet outlines the demands of the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers. It also includes a brief history of student labor organizing at Harvard and an overview of the unions currently active on campus.

Olivia G. Pasquerella ’26, a SLAM organizer and Crimson Magazine editor, said the group created the pamphlet to address what they see as a lack of awareness among undergraduates.

Nearly 100 graduate workers gathered in front of the Science Center around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, marking the largest congregation of picketers so far.

Demonstrators formed a continuous loop around the plaza, with smaller groups stationed at building entrances. The crowd expanded into the seating area, many holding “UAW ON STRIKE” signs.

Some workers beat on buckets with drumsticks, setting a steady rhythm as chants echoed across the plaza.

Harvard’s History Department postponed its Faculty Book Tour on Tuesday after the start of the graduate student strike disrupted attendance and campus activity.

The event — scheduled for 3 p.m. and set to feature six faculty members discussing their recent books — was called off around 1 p.m., shortly before it was set to begin.

In an email to department affiliates, Seminar Chair Paulina L. Alberto wrote that if hosted as scheduled, the event would no longer “properly reflect the joyous atmosphere that we would like to cultivate in celebrating our colleagues and their achievements.”

Massachusetts State House candidate and former HGSU-UAW president Evan C. MacKay ’19 returned to the picket lines today, emphasizing the role of collective action and calling for stronger support from state leaders for organized labor.

MacKay, who participated in HGSU-UAW strikes in both 2019 and 2021, said the current strike reflects ongoing efforts to build solidarity across a bargaining unit with high turnover and widely varying working conditions.

“We’ve been doing a lot of acculturating people into being in a union, and the importance of solidarity as the union,” they said. “We do a lot of helping people understand the diversity of working conditions within our bargaining unit.”

Picketing activity spread across campus around midday as small groups of union workers moved between classroom buildings and gathering points in Harvard Yard.

Seven demonstrators gathered outside the Harvard Art Museums’ Broadway entrance shortly after noon, appearing to protest large classes held in the museum’s Menschel Hall. GenEd 1204: “Why Democracy” — scheduled from 12 to 1 p.m. — was held without interruption in the space at the time.

Workers began chanting and circling the entrance at approximately 12:20 pm, before relocating to the museum’s main entrance on Quincy Street roughly 20 minutes later.

State Rep. Mike L. Connolly, who represents the 26th Middlesex District, joined HGSU-UAW members on the picket line, voicing support for what he called the graduate students’ “very reasonable requests for a new contract.”

“Harvard has an obligation to treat its workers fairly and to compensate them fairly, especially given the billions and billions that this institution holds in its endowment,” Connolly said in an interview.

State Sen. Lydia Edwards, who represents the 3rd Suffolk District, was also present at the demonstration earlier in the day, Connolly said.

Two organizers with the Socialist Equality Party set up a booth next to the picketers around 11 a.m., distributing flyers criticizing the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers’ one-year deal with Harvard and the UAW’s organizational structure.

Clerical and technical workers signed a one-year contract with Harvard roughly a week ago, securing $2,300 raises for most workers. One of the Socialist Equality Party flyers, a printout from an article on the World Socialist Web Site, argued that HUCTW’s deal “is designed to prevent a fight over central issues: healthcare costs, job security and wage adequacy.”

“The Socialist Equality Party calls on the members of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) to reject the tentative agreement announced on April 16, build a rank-and-file committee independent of the union bureaucracy, and join hands with their brothers and sisters in HGSU-UAW in a unified fight for living wages, job security and an end to Harvard’s complicity in war and genocide,” the handout read.

As the bells of Memorial Church struck noon, workers began demonstrations in Harvard Yard. Roughly 10 picketers circled the entrance to Sever Hall, while six more gathered outside Emerson Hall next door.

“If we don’t get it, shut it down!” picketers shouted as students continued to pass in and out of both buildings.

A light police presence remained, with one officer stationed in front of the halls.

Three demonstrators stationed themselves outside the Harvard Graduate School of Education library on Tuesday morning, handing out flyers for an “information station” separate from the main picket line.

The group had been outside the library since 8 a.m., according to HGSE Ph.D. student Krista Galleberg.

They stood in front of a banner reading “Strike to Change the World, a play on HGSEs motto, “Learn to Change the World.”

BOSTON — More than 40 graduate workers picketed the Harvard Medical School quad Tuesday, bringing the third HGSU-UAW strike to Longwood.

Chants echoed across the HMS lawn throughout the morning.

“Harvard, Harvard, crying poor — what’s that big endowment for?” workers called out. They also issued a sharper rebuke of federal immigration enforcement, calling for “no collusion with the feds.”

Several classes altered their regular schedules in response to the strike, with some cancelling sessions or shifting instruction online.

Around 10:30 a.m., roughly 10 demonstrators began picketing the entrance to Sanders Theatre. Government 1090: “Biotech Ethics” — a large lecture course scheduled to meet there — was ultimately canceled after instructors told students Monday night they would not hold class if a strike took place.

Others courses opted to continue meeting, with accommodations. Economics 1011B: “Intermediate Macroeconomics” announced it would proceed with its in-person lecture, while also recording the session for students who chose not to cross picket lines.

Brandon J. Mancilla, director of UAW Region 9A and a former president of HGSU-UAW, marched alongside picketers at the entrance to the Science Center.

Most of HGSU-UAW’s current demands mirror those from 2021, when Mancilla led the union through its second strike. But in an interview, he said time has only made the union’s proposals more reasonable.

“The union’s only gotten stronger, more established as time has gone by,” he said.

Picketing began at a measured pace early Tuesday, as just over a dozen demonstrators circled the entrance to the Science Center while students filed into class.

At 8:15 a.m., strikers formally launched the picket with a cheer, joined by members of the Good Trouble Brass Band, who played briefly before leaving shortly before 9 a.m.

Demonstrators set up a tent between Annenberg Hall and the Science Center Plaza and carried a wide array of signs marking the start of a strike with no announced end date.

Harvard’s graduate student union has begun its strike after the University failed to make “significant movement” before the midnight deadline, according to bargaining committee member Denish Jaswal.

“The strike starts now,” Jaswal said, adding that picketing will begin early Tuesday morning, around 6 a.m.

Jaswal said the union’s goal remains to secure a fair contract, calling the escalation “unfortunate” after more than a year of negotiations.

Harvard’s graduate student union is set to strike Tuesday morning after a Monday bargaining session — the last scheduled before the union’s midnight deadline — sidestepped the economic issues at the center of the dispute.

The Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers told members in a Monday evening email to “expect to be on strike” as of 6 a.m. Tuesday. Union leaders are convening Monday night to formally confirm the walkout, but said only substantial progress toward a contract would prompt them to call it off.

Lindsey E. Adams, an at-large member of the HGSU-UAW bargaining committee, said Monday’s one-hour session had “no bearing” on the union’s decision to strike.