Harvard Graduate Students Ending Strike Without a Contract

Harvard Graduate Students Ending Strike Without a Contract

The school is bringing in federal mediators next week to help resolve the issue.

The Harvard Crimson reports:

Without a Contract, Harvard Graduate Student Union to End Strike Jan. 1

Harvard’s graduate student union will end its strike Dec. 31 and return to work in the new year without a contract, the union’s bargaining committee announced in an email to members Monday afternoon.

Though the union and University have yet to reach an agreement, the two sides enter 2020 weathered by the longest graduate student strike in recent history. The parties will meet for their next bargaining session on Jan. 7, joined by federal mediators.

During the nearly four-week-long strike, union and University representatives met for just one three-hour-long negotiating session. During that meeting, they came to six tentative agreements, though none concerned the core issues behind the union’s strike: compensation, healthcare, and an independent third-party grievance procedure for adjudicating sexual harassment and discrimination complaints. Following the session, the University proposed — and the union accepted — an offer to engage the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

The strike will officially conclude at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31, according to the bargaining committee’s email. In its email, the committee wrote that the strike had laid a “new foundation to finish negotiations.”

“In response to our strike, the administration—for the first time ever—announced that they intend to reach a contract by the end of January,” the email read. “We now expect the administration to put all their energy into reaching a fair agreement.”

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