Harvard Grad Student Workers Continue Strike

Harvard Grad Student Workers Continue Strike

It’s amazing that they found a way to tie Trump into this.

The Harvard Crimson reports:

One Week Into Strike, Graduate Student Workers Rally at University Hall, Urge Deans to Intervene

More than 200 members of Harvard’s graduate student union rallied outside University Hall Tuesday, delivering a letter urging deans to push the University toward a contract settlement one week into their second strike of the year.

The letter, addressed to Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean Emma Dench, was signed by members of Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers, which represents more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate student workers.

“We need University leadership like yourself to do what is right and advocate for the workers that make this University what it is,” the letter reads.

The union’s demands remain unchanged since its second walkout of the year began last Tuesday: higher wages and benefits, protections for noncitizen workers, and an independent process for harassment and discrimination complaints.

Speakers at the rally included Harvard Law School professor Nikolas E. Bowie, local elected officials, and members of the Harvard College Democrats.

Bowie tied the strike to Harvard’s opposition to the Trump administration’s actions, arguing the University’s position with the union was incompatible with its push back to the White House.

“The University that sued the president over international students will not promise its own students in writing that it will stand between you and his agents,” Bowie said.

A Harvard spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Harvard has previously argued that another strike is “unwarranted,” pointing to its latest contract proposal, which includes an immediate 6.1 percent pay raise and subsequent annual raises of 3 percent.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.