FSU supports Striking Harvard Graduate Students

11/3/2021

Dear FSU Member,

The FSU recently signed onto the following letter of support for the striking Harvard graduate students.  For more information about the struggle and how to support it please go here. 

From the Faculty Staff Union Executive Committee

For information on the FSU, links to our contract and bargaining updates, and a calendar of events, see the FSU webpage

Dear Harvard University Administration,



As members of the Greater Boston and Massachusetts community, we are calling upon the Harvard University administration to bargain in good faith for a fair contract with HGSU-UAW Local 5118 after seven months of negotiations. We stand in solidarity with the Harvard student workers as they demand fair compensation that adequately reflects the cost of living and inflation, real protections against all forms of discrimination and harassment, and an agency shop through which all student workers can build a strong and sustainable union. The University has also been charged with two unfair labor practices. We call on the administration to take all measures possible to bargain in good faith and agree to a fair contract before the workers are forced to strike on October 27th.



Harvard could not function without the labor of student workers. It relies upon them to educate its students, assist its faculty, and produce research that is integral to the university’s reputable global standing. Moreover, throughout the pandemic, student workers have proven essential to the university’s continued operation. By refusing to agree to a fair contract, Harvard is demonstrating its lack of concern for the issues central to its student workers’ personal and collective dignity and well-being. Harvard’s graduate student workers deserve to join every other union on Harvard’s campus with an agency shop provision included in their contract and access to neutral third-party grievance and arbitration for all cases of harassment and discrimination. Additionally, they deserve to have majority third-party hearing panels in the decision-making process for Title IX cases, as well as access to financial assistance for lawyers in these cases. Unless the university recognizes the demands of its student workers, they will have no option but to withhold their labor from an employer who refuses to negotiate for fair pay, union security, and real recourse for survivors of harassment and discrimination.



We will stand with Harvard’s student workers as they stand on the picket line. We support HGSU’s strike action and call upon the administration to address their bargaining demands promptly.



Sincerely,