Harvard Graduate Students Union - UAW

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Harvard Graduate Students Union - UAW We are the Harvard student employees who provide quality teaching and research for the university. We want our work to be respected and our voices heard.

Harvard has a nearly $68 BILLION endowment. We’re still fighting for a fair contract.We want to keep teaching, doing our...
10/16/2026

Harvard has a nearly $68 BILLION endowment. We’re still fighting for a fair contract.

We want to keep teaching, doing our research, and getting paid. But we also need to afford rent, work free from harassment, and know our noncitizen coworkers are protected. We don’t want to go on strike. Harvard is pushing us toward one.

We brought a comprehensive proposal to the bargaining table and made movement on our core demands. Some movement was made, but Harvard continues to refuse the pay and protections we need, even as its endowment grew by more than $11 BILLION.

Unless Harvard agrees to a fair contract, student workers will begin a strike on October 27.

Withholding our labor means real sacrifices. We know that. We’ve worked to avoid another strike. But we cannot keep absorbing the cost of Harvard’s refusal to treat its workers fairly.

The money is there. The choice belongs to Harvard.

Harvard ignored us for three sessions. Then we authorized a strike.HGSU graduate students: join us for our TIME’S UP FOR...
10/13/2026

Harvard ignored us for three sessions. Then we authorized a strike.

HGSU graduate students: join us for our TIME’S UP FOR HARVARD Strike Readiness Meeting this Thursday, October 15 at 6 PM in CGIS South’s Tsai Auditorium. Remember to wear red (and pick up a free HGSU beanie!). Dinner will be provided.

RSVP: bit.ly/hgsustrikeready

After three straight sessions of silence, Harvard finally moved partway on accommodations, timelines, and modest wage increases. That movement came because workers organized and authorized our Bargaining Committee to call a strike if necessary.

But Harvard is still stalling on some of our biggest priorities. We removed our vision care ask and made real concessions on dental and emergency fund structures. Harvard brought no benefits counter. Our core protections for non-citizen workers, including putting Harvard’s own immigration-enforcement guidelines in writing, remain unanswered. On transition support, Harvard backed away from previous indications that it would move.

Our strike threat is already changing Harvard’s behavior. What they bring to bargaining on October 22 will depend on how clearly we show that we are ready to fight for our contract. Join us!

Harvard ignored us for three sessions. Then we authorized a strike.HGSU members: join us for our TIME’S UP FOR HARVARD S...
10/13/2026

Harvard ignored us for three sessions. Then we authorized a strike.

HGSU members: join us for our TIME’S UP FOR HARVARD Strike Readiness Meeting this Thursday, October 15 at 6 PM in CGIS South’s Tsai Auditorium. Be sure to wear red, and if you forget, we’ll have free HGSU beanies for members. Dinner will be provided!

RSVP: bit.ly/hgsustrikeready

After three straight sessions of silence, Harvard finally moved partway on accommodations, timelines, and modest wage increases. That movement came because workers organized and authorized our Bargaining Committee to call a strike if necessary.

But Harvard is still stalling on some of our biggest priorities. We removed our vision care ask and made real concessions on dental and emergency fund structures. Harvard brought no benefits counter. Our core protections for non-citizen workers, including putting Harvard’s own immigration-enforcement guidelines in writing, remain unanswered. On transition support, Harvard backed away from previous indications that it would move.

Our strike threat is already changing Harvard’s behavior. What they bring to bargaining on October 22 will depend on how clearly we show that we are ready to fight for our contract. We’ve got the power — join us!

10/09/2026

Harvard brought us nothing for three sessions. Then we authorized a strike. Suddenly, the counterproposals appeared…!

At our 37th bargaining session, we presented a comprehensive package with movement on many of our core issues because we want to reach an agreement before another strike becomes necessary.

Today, Harvard finally increased its wage offer from 2.5–2.75% to 3% and introduced timelines for disability accommodation requests. That movement shows what happens when workers organize and demonstrate that we are prepared to act.

But Harvard is still far from what student workers need and deserve. Its wage offer remains far behind peer institutions and a living wage in Cambridge and Boston. The university still has not responded to our demands for protections for non-citizen workers. It continues to refuse to engage on harassment and discrimination protections. And it is standing by a proposal that would eliminate access to key benefits.

Harvard can move. Now we need to make sure they keep moving.

If you’re a Harvard student worker, join us on Thursday, October 15 at 6 PM for our Time’s Up for Harvard Strike Readiness Meeting in CGI South, Tsai Auditorium. Show up and wear your union shirt. RSVP at: bit.ly/hgsustrikeready

BREAKING: Harvard graduate workers voted overwhelmingly, with over 88% voting YES, to authorize a strike.After 570+ days...
10/07/2026

BREAKING: Harvard graduate workers voted overwhelmingly, with over 88% voting YES, to authorize a strike.

After 570+ days and 36 bargaining sessions, Harvard continues to stall. At the last three bargaining sessions, the University brought ZERO proposals to our outstanding articles.

This vote does not automatically initiate a strike. It gives our elected bargaining committee the authority to call one if Harvard continues refusing to negotiate a fair contract.

We will do everything in our power to avoid a strike. We want to reach a fair deal at the bargaining table, and we hope Harvard will come prepared to make real progress before a strike becomes necessary. A strike is our last resort. But if Harvard still refuses to move, we are prepared to do what it takes.

And we are not alone. Nearly 94% of participating Harvard Academic Workers have also voted to authorize a strike. University dining workers have also rallied and warned of a possible strike as their contract negotiations continue. Workers across Harvard are done waiting.

We know strikes move Harvard. Our historic 40-day strike forced the University to agree to eight contract articles, securing fully covered dental premiums for PhD students, private workspaces, retaliation protections, additional time to file grievances, and more.

The world’s wealthiest university has a $57 billion endowment. Harvard can afford to provide safe work, fair pay, and the right to stay. It can negotiate fair contracts, or it can confront thousands of workers across this university united and ready to fight.

Harvard has the resources. We have the power. Join us!

“Again, Harvard cannot prevail.”That’s what the First Circuit ruled after Harvard spent four years arguing that Psycholo...
10/06/2026

“Again, Harvard cannot prevail.”

That’s what the First Circuit ruled after Harvard spent four years arguing that Psychology PhD workers aren’t workers. Harvard lost in arbitration. It lost in federal district court. Now, it has lost a third time.

During arbitration, Harvard even argued that “real labor is only when you’re holding a pipette in your hands.”

Four PhD researchers in the same lab had NSF grants and did identical work. Harvard called two of them workers, while declaring the two in Psychology “purely academic.” Why? Because excluding them from our union was convenient.

But our contract means Harvard doesn’t get the final say. This victory means 70+ Psychology workers are protected by our contract. It’s also good news for the nearly 900 researchers Harvard unlawfully carved out of our union last summer.

Harvard will keep testing how much it can get away with. Our strike authorization vote is how we show them we’re ready to fight back.

HGSU members: Vote YES before the strike authorization vote closes tonight.

10/01/2026

Harvard cannot claim to oppose harassment while refusing workers enforceable protections when we speak up.

What happened at Cornell is not an isolated scandal. At Harvard, graduate workers have long faced harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and institutional processes that fail the people they are supposed to protect.

Claire, a graduate worker in engineering, endured years of sexual harassment in her lab. After she raised concerns, her advisor revealed to others that she was the person who spoke up. Soon after, her funding, research, and entire PhD were thrown into jeopardy.

She turned to Harvard for help. Emails went unanswered. Meetings were delayed. Nearly a year after believing she had filed a Title IX report, she learned no report had been filed.

That is what “protections” look like when the institution accused of failing workers controls the entire process.

Harvard workers do not need another empty promise. We need REAL RECOURSE: enforceable protections against harassment, discrimination, bullying, and retaliation, and a grievance process workers can actually use when Harvard fails us.

Harvard has refused to agree to those basic protections at the bargaining table. So now we organize.

A YES vote in our strike authorization vote sends Harvard a clear message: we are prepared to fight for a workplace where speaking up does not cost us our research, our funding, or our future.

If Harvard will not protect workers voluntarily, we will compel them to do so.

Harvard graduate students: vote YES in our strike authorization vote to win real recourse.

09/25/2026

Another session, another round of stonewalling. HGSU members: vote YES to show Harvard our strike power.

09/25/2026

Harvard has a $57 billion endowment. After 572 days at the bargaining table, Harvard is still trying to gut our benefit funds, refusing to codify requiring a warrant for ICE on campus into our contract, and denying workers third-party arbitration for harassment and discrimination.

Safe work.
Fair pay.
The right to stay.

We are fighting for basic essentials. Yet Harvard’s highly paid lawyers and administrators continue to bring nothing to the table.

Last spring, HGSU members went on a historic 40-day strike. Harvard moved. It showed us that Harvard responds to only one thing: our strike power.

A YES vote gives our bargaining committee the power to authorize a strike and win the contract we need. It tells Harvard that we are organized, united, and ready to fight for every member.

We were proud to be in solidarity with our union siblings Harvard Academic Workers. We are at a turning point in the history of higher education, and our fate as workers at this university is bound together.

HGSU members, vote YES and show Harvard the power that we hold.

Join an upcoming strike school: bit.ly/hgsustrikeschool

Learn more: bit.ly/hgsustrike

09/17/2026

Safe work. Fair pay. Right to stay.

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