My name is Koby Ljunggren, and I am a first-year student in the Biophysics Ph.D. Program. I am one of your elected representatives on HGSU’s 2021 Bargaining Committee.
I’m writing to you with the very first bargaining update from our union’s second contract campaign.
Our first contract with Harvard is slated to expire on June 30th, 2021. My colleagues and I on your recently-elected Bargaining Committee are preparing in earnest to begin bargaining a second—and stronger—contract for all student workers at Harvard.
In preparing for negotiations, we’ve already taken the following steps:
- Launched our 2021 Bargaining Survey to collect workers’ feedback on what is important to win in our next contract;
- Approached Harvard with a notice of intent to bargain and an information request to help inform how we approach bargaining;
- Organized our co-workers, because the stronger our union is, the stronger our next contract can be;
- Set a date to open our bargaining goals vote.
These efforts are bearing fruit: Harvard has agreed to come to the table to begin negotiating in mid-March. Given how difficult it was to get Harvard to the bargaining table to negotiate our first contract, this is a promising start—and one we certainly owe to the strength of our past organizing.
To ensure that I and the rest of your Bargaining Committee can start negotiations in the strongest position possible, can you please help me out by doing your part?
- Fill out the bargaining survey before it closes! If you’ve done so, ask 3 friends to join you in filling out the survey.
- Join our union as a member. If you’ve done so, ask 3 friends to join today. Unions are about collective power and we can’t build it without you!
- Register for our General Membership Meeting tomorrow, March 9th and vote to ratify our bargaining goals before we get to the table with Harvard!
The contract we win is the contract YOU are willing to fight for. Are you in?
In solidarity,
Koby Ljunggren
