‘We’re not asking for the moon’: Harvard strike grows as academic workers walk out

Résumé détaillé

Hundreds of academic workers at Harvard University joined graduate students on the picket line Tuesday, walking off the job in an attempt to bring the academic arm of the…

Hundreds of academic workers at Harvard University joined graduate students on the picket line Tuesday, walking off the job in an attempt to bring the academic arm of the university to a halt as economic and political pressures continue to drive bargaining negotiations.

The Harvard Academic Workers Union — which represents researchers and nontenure track faculty — is the second union to go on strike in recent weeks, joining the graduate student union which has been on strike since Oct. 28. Roughly 6,500 members are eligible to strike between the two unions.

The addition of academic workers continues to impact classroom instruction, as teachers for some of the university’s required courses and lab sessions have walked off the job. Members of both unions circled the Science Center Plaza outside Harvard Yard, with chants of “Harvard messed up, now we’re two.”

Dining workers could be the third union to join the picket line, after they voted to authorize a strike last month. The law school clinicians union is also currently in bargaining talks with the administration, but have not indicated that they will strike yet.

This is the first time the academic workers group has negotiated a contract with Harvard after they formed a union in April 2024. Bargaining talks have spanned two years and more than 50 sessions.

Many tenets of the dual strikes are in unison: calls for higher pay, stronger policies against harassment and discrimination, and protections for those at Harvard on international visas.

But for the academic workers, union members assert the university has stalled talks for them to build their foundational contract. The academic workers and Harvard have reached an agreement on 27 articles, but remain at an impasse over compensation, workplace protections, and definitions of who is eligible to join the union.

Harvard disagrees. In a letter sent to the community ahead of the strike, John Manning, Harvard’s provost, and Meredith Weenick, the executive vice president, said…

“W…

Début de l'article, extrait de The Boston Globe. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.