Harvard grad student workers end 40-day strike without a contract

After 40 days of picketing, Harvard graduate students on Monday ended their longest strike yet without getting a new contract.

Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers (HGSU-UAW), which represents more than 4,000 student workers worldwide Harvard University The union said in a statement that 13 schools voted to suspend the strike after what union leaders described as a shift in the university’s approach during the negotiating session on Friday. press release.

HGSU-UAW President Dinesh Jaswal said the university has “expressed its willingness” to engage on certain issues, including pay equity for teaching fellows and research assistants, protections for non-citizen workers, and anti-discrimination provisions.

“The way the university approached us at the table in that session was a hopeful sign that there could be movement with the university,” Jaswal told Boston.com.

The union has spent the past 14 months negotiating a contract with the university. During that period, Harvard expanded benefits for graduate students and offered full dental coverage for doctoral degrees. Students, the proposed four-year pay package was increased by 1 percent after negotiations, according to the union’s press release.

“Although these proposals fall far short of the union’s demands for a living wage and do not address workplace protections, such as the risk of harassment and discrimination or protections for noncitizens, they were the first sign of the university’s engagement with the union’s priorities,” the press release continues.

Negotiations are scheduled to resume on June 9-23, according to Jaswal.

In a Message to faculty members On Monday, Harvard Vice Provost Jessica Subban and Managing Director of Labor and Employee Relations Paul Curran wrote that the university has met with the union 28 times and remains committed to “negotiating in good faith.”

Subban and Curran pointed to Harvard’s latest compensation proposal, which includes a 2.75 percent increase upon ratification of the contract and an additional 3.25 percent increase on July 1 for students who are gainfully employed.

They also noted that Harvard has expanded benefits previously reserved for full-time employees to include part-time students, such as access to the Legal Services Plan.

“Our student workers play a vital role in advancing Harvard’s teaching and research mission, and we remain committed to reaching an agreement that recognizes their contributions to our pursuit of academic excellence,” the letter read in part.

Throughout the strike, union members maintained picket lines across Harvard’s campuses in Cambridge and Longwood. The union said workers held up more than 200 shipments, leading to supply shortages in some research laboratories.

“Research laboratories have stopped working, academic subjects have been left untaught, and assignments have not been graded,” the union said in the press release.

The strike also drew attention outside Harvard’s campus. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu pulled out of a scheduled speech at Harvard Law School on Wednesday after efforts to find an alternative arrangement that would allow her to avoid crossing a picket line of striking graduates proved unsuccessful.

Jaswal described the 40-day strike as exhausting and empowering for the participants.

“It took thousands of our members, and they poured a lot of their heart, soul, time and energy into it,” she said. “While it was physically exhausting [and] It was emotionally exhausting, but also very empowering.

Despite the challenges, Jaswal said the experience strengthened solidarity among workers and left many excited about the next phase of negotiations.

“There were hundreds and hundreds of workers coming out every day, sometimes thousands of workers every day, and we meet each other and realize that we all care enough to be here with each other and actually fight for a better world,” she said. “Of course we are tired, but I think we are also empowered, energetic and ready to keep fighting.”