Harvard Student Workers Are Prepared to Strike
Harvard is the world’s richest university — and Harvard’s student workers say they are being paid sub-living wages. A Harvard Graduate Student Union leader tells Jacobin about the union’s struggle with the university and why they’re prepared to strike.
Harvard Management Company recently announced that the university’s endowment returned 33.6 percent on its investments, growing to $53.2 billion, in the past fiscal year. (Somesh Kesarla Suresh / Unsplash)
Harvard Management Company recently announced that the university’s endowment returned 33.6 percent on its investments, growing to $53.2 billion, in the past fiscal year. During the same year, as COVID-19 emptied Harvard’s campus and moved teaching online, many of Harvard’s student workers struggled to make ends meet. Without basic health care provisions, raises to match the rising cost of living in Cambridge, and access to impartial investigation of harassment cases, Harvard Graduate Student Union (HGSU) members will go on strike this Wednesday if their demands are not met.
In an interview with Jacobin’s Piper Winkler, Aparna Gopalan, a member of HGSU’s Executive Board, Bargaining Committee, and the union’s staff, describes HGSU’s journey from its first contract to the current strike authorization vote, the tactics Harvard’s administration uses to divide campus workers and break strikes, and the key demands that Harvard’s student workers are willing to strike for.
Piper Winkler
In late September, 92 percent of Harvard Graduate Student Union members voted to authorize a strike. What led to this decision?
Aparna Gopalan
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