February 2021
Volume 1
Issue 5
Have you received your appointment letter?
Our contract guarantees all student workers an appointment letter, which should contain your official appointment title, appointment period, expected work hours and job responsibilities, among other things. This document is very important for establishing your rights and responsibilities, and guaranteeing the security of your appointment under the contract. Everyone, regardless of whether you have teaching or research appointments or both, should get a letter before they are asked to start work. However, we are aware of students in many departments who have been working for weeks without having received an appointment letter. If you have yet to receive a letter, or you think there is something wrong with your letter, please submit a workplace issue form or email us at hgsu.grievance@protonmail.com so that we can address the delay with the University.
The Contract Education and Enforcement Committee (CEEC) has also been working on pay issues students working abroad are facing, as well as continuing to work with the university to expand healthcare and safety for student workers during the pandemic. Learn more about their work in their recently published January CEEC Report (or click on the image above).Our contract guarantees all student workers an appointment letter, which should contain your official appointment title, appointment period, expected work hours and job responsibilities, among other things. This document is very important for establishing your rights and responsibilities, and guaranteeing the security of your appointment under the contract. Everyone, regardless of whether you have teaching or research appointments or both, should get a letter before they are asked to start work. However, we are aware of students in many departments who have been working for weeks without having received an appointment letter. If you have yet to receive a letter, or you think there is something wrong with your letter, please submit a workplace issue form or email us at hgsu.grievance@protonmail.com so that we can address the delay with the University.
The fight for a second contract
In June, we ratified a historic first contract that secured a number of rights, protections, and benefits for student workers. This one-year contract came at a critical time during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing much-needed stability for student workers in the form of raises, benefits funds, and more. And yet, there is so much left to do to address all of the issues we face as student workers at this university. We’ve made extraordinary progress in developing union infrastructure and organizing power. With the June 2021 contract expiration date quickly approaching, the HGSU Bargaining Committee (BC) filed a formal notice of intent to bargain with Harvard University on Friday, February 12 to initiate bargaining and to build on the progress we’ve already made. This move by your union marks the beginning of our second contract campaign.
The road ahead is likely to be long and arduous. Although we have our bargaining team ready to go, Harvard must now assemble their team for negotiations. Additionally, we await the Harvard administration’s response to our request for information that will be critical to our negotiations. They must respond to our request within two weeks.
You may also recall that there is an HGSU bargaining survey circulating. From this survey, the BC will develop a list of bargaining goals that will be presented to membership at the March General Membership Meeting on Tuesday, March 9th (Register here) and voted on starting at the GMM. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to complete the bargaining survey and ask three of your friends or colleagues to do the same.
However, the BC can’t do it alone. Well-reasoned and well-researched arguments made at the bargaining table don’t always move the university to agree with our demands. Harvard’s perception of our strength as a union matters a great deal. That’s why we will continue to work to ensure we’re in the strongest position possible to negotiate with the university. Membership is power; the contract we win is the contract you’re willing to fight for. There’s never been a better time to join HGSU and leverage power together to achieve the best contract on the table. Now is the time to organize. Become a member of HGSU at harvardgradunion.org/join. If you are a member, there are many other ways to organize including:
- Connecting with your program/departmental steward(s)
- Becoming a program/departmental steward (email hgsu.general@gmail.com)
- Showing up at weekly organizing committee meetings on Mondays at 7pm EST
- Joining a union working group such as the racial justice working group, international students working group, feminist working group, or the communications committee
- Having 1:1 conversations with your peers about the union
Reversing layoffs at HLS and HMS
Across Harvard, HGSU members know that our research depends on the labor of hardworking support staff, from cafeteria workers to custodians. In January, HGSU organizers and members helped our community demonstrate its commitment to these fellow-workers, convincing Harvard Law School (HLS) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) to rescind layoffs of subcontracted staff. Here’s how these big wins for solidarity came to be:
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, Harvard had promised to provide full pay and benefits to all campus workers “idled” by the disruption, whether employed directly or through subcontractors. Then, in November, as the pandemic continued to worsen, Harvard announced it would permit individual schools to drop contract workers from this protection on January 15th. HLS and HMS opted to end these commitments, threatening to deprive dozens of dining and cleaning workers of their income and health insurance—after these workers had been bravely masking up to care for our campus all year.
At HLS, HGSU organizers quickly organized a petition and call-in campaign that got immediate results. HLS made a lasting commitment to continue paying 70% of lost wages to any workers who lose their jobs, and released a plan to transition contract dining workers into direct positions with Harvard University Dining Services.
At HMS, a representative from the dining workers’ union reached out to HGSU’s Solidarity Committee for support fighting impending layoffs. With the help of our allies around HMS, especially the HMS Genetics Anti-Racist Group, HGSU organizers started posting and sharing info, graphics, and a petition the same day 16 cafeteria workers received layoff notices from Harvard. Their employer rescinded the layoff notices the very next day! These workers still haven’t formally regained their job security, but they know that if the need arises, HGSU is ready to jump into action again for our valued friends, co-workers, and fellow union members.
Provide your comments on a proposed amendment to our bylaws before the March GMM!
At the February General Membership Meeting (GMM), members of the Governance and Participation Committee (GPC) introduced a proposed amendment to our bylaws. This amendment would help bring our bylaws into accordance with the UAW Constitution regarding the President of our local sitting on the Bargaining Committee as an ex officio member.
Amendments to our bylaws are announced at one GMM and voted on at the following GMM following a comment and review period. HGSU members can use this how-to guide and this Google form to make comments on the proposed amendments to our bylaws up until the day of the GMM, March 9th. Join HGSU today at https://harvardgradunion.org/join! If you have any follow-up questions or would like to get involved in the GPC, email hgsu.trustees@gmail.com
Labor Links
We’re kicking off a new feature in this newsletter: a short collection of links from the last month, to help you learn what’s happening in labor organizing and politics at Harvard, across the country, and around the world. If you find labor news or analysis that we should consider including in our next newsletter, please email it to us at hgsu.records@gmail.com
At Harvard
- Recent research has shown that, with 5050 eligible voters, our union election was the largest of any successful union election in the past 16 years.
- Harvard Labor and Worklife Program (LWP) Director Sharon Block is leaving Harvard to become the Associate Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a little-known but powerful White House office that has historically amplified corporate influence in both Democratic and Republican administrations. Known for overseeing the LWP’s Clean Slate for Worker Power project, Block may be well-positioned to help OIRA promote pro-worker regulations.
Across the Country
- Thousands of workers at an Amazon fulfilment center in Bessemer, AL, voted in a union representation election last week. Official results will be forthcoming.
- Google workers across locations and job classifications announced the formation of the Alphabet Workers Union, the latest of many labor organizing developments in tech.
- The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) will now represent social media influencers.
Around the World
- Indian farmers and agricultural laborers have continued their massive protest movement against a set of laws that would deregulate the agricultural sector. These protests also included a massive one-day worker strike against anti-worker legislation and in support of the farmers’ movement.
- Protests in Myanmar against the recent military coup have grown to include a wave of strikes among medical workers, engineers, teachers, civil servants, and manufacturing workers.
