CAMBRIDGE, MA — Student workers at Harvard University made history today, voting in favor of ratifying their first union contract. The one-year contract agreement with the university will improve pay and benefits for over 4,000 student workers, and guarantee health and safety protections in the midst of a pandemic. The contract strengthens protections for student workers against discrimination and harassment, including racial discrimination and sexual harassment, and includes new provisions aimed at increasing job security for international student workers. The contract is a major victory not only for the Harvard Graduate Students Union (HGSU-UAW), which is the largest private-sector student ...
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Successful vote is latest victory in growing grad worker union movement “We have been organizing for a long time,” said Niharika Singh, a Ph.D. student in Public Policy and a Teaching Fellow. “Winning our union today means we can finally start to make improvements to our working conditions. Our next step will be to democratically prioritize the changes we plan to bargain for.” “This has been an incredibly long haul, and we are so energized by this vote,” said Abraham Waldman, a Ph.D. student and Research Assistant in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department. “As hard as we worked to ...
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Decision denies Harvard’s appeal to national board, clearing the path for a new fair election Cambridge, MA – This morning, the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., denied Harvard’s challenge to the NLRB Regional Director’s decision, which ordered a new, fair election after it was confirmed that Harvard had left over 500 people off the list of eligible voters for the union election that was held last November. A copy of the order is attached. “This is another great victory for graduate workers in the UAW and a shot in the arm to this growing movement,” said UAW Region ...
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Senator Bernie Sanders sent letters to the presidents of Harvard, Columbia and Boston College today as graduate workers rallied across the country: “To my mind, it would be a huge mistake to attempt to roll back these workers’ right to organize.” Boston, MA – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sent letters to the presidents of three major universities today asking them to “support the legal rights of research and teaching assistants to form unions and bargain in good faith with them.” Graduate workers across the country rallied today to protest managers at these universities and others who have embraced the Trump ...
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After weeks of hearings and deliberations, the NLRB in a report filed Wednesday affirmed that the Harvard Graduate Students Union-UAW’s concerns over Harvard’s list of eligible voters was valid and could lead to another election. In the report and recommendations of the NLRB hearing officer the NLRB wrote: “I find that the Employer has not substantially complied with the voter list requirements set forth in Section 102.62(d) of the Board’s Rules and Regulations. Accordingly, I recommend that [HGSU-UAW’s] objection be sustained and that, if a revised tally of ballots does not result in the Petitioner receiving a majority of the ...
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – As the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) moves forward in a highly-anticipated case that could restore graduate workers’ rights as employees, a majority of graduate workers at Harvard University have signed cards saying that they want to a form a union. In an official affirmation of this choice, the American Arbitration Association (AAA) confirmed a majority of graduate workers are supporting the formation of a union. Today, as support for graduate workers’ rights reaches unprecedented levels nationwide, hundreds of Harvard graduate workers, community supporters and local elected officials are calling on the university administration to stop blocking ...
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