What is a strike authorization vote (SAV)?

A strike authorization vote is a standard union process that authorizes our elected bargaining committee to call for a strike. If two-thirds majority of voting members vote in favor of striking, the SAV passes and our bargaining committee can call for a strike if and when circumstances warrant. 

Why is HGSU holding a strike authorization vote?

We have been bargaining for a new contract for over a year. Over the last 12 months, the Harvard administration has made no movement on several key member issues, including: real recourse against harassment, discrimination, and bullying; cost of living adjustments; and noncitizen worker protections. Just one day after our contract expiration, on 6/30/2025, the Harvard administration unilaterally — and in violation of our CBA — carved out almost 1,000 student workers from their union eligibility. They have shown they have little interest in reaching a reasonable agreement that meets the needs of their graduate workers: we must act accordingly. A strong “Yes” vote from thousands of members communicates that we are ready to strike if the University fails to make movement toward a fair contract that protects its workers.

Who is eligible to vote? 

All members in good standing are eligible to vote. You can sign up to be a union member here. If you have questions about eligibility, please contact the elections committee at [email protected].

How do I vote?

You will receive an electronic ballot to your email from Election Buddy – please check all inboxes where you receive mail, including your spam folder. If you have not received a ballot, it is likely because you are not yet a member. But worry not! You can join as a member here, and you should receive a ballot within 24h of signing a membership card. Please email [email protected] with any questions or concerns about the balloting process. 

Will the University know if I’ve voted in a strike authorization vote?

No. The only people who will know if (not how) you have voted are elected union officers and union organizers. We will not disclose identifiable information with anyone else, including the University. Our information only provides whether someone has voted and not how (i.e., “Yes” or “No”) they voted. Further, we are legally protected from surveillance of any sort by our employer. At the conclusion of the SAV, HGSU will publicly report the total number of voters and percentage breakdowns of Yes/No votes. 

When does the SAV close?

There is no pre-determined end date yet. You will receive email communications from the union at least 48 hours before the SAV closes. 

If the vote passes, do we automatically go into a strike? 

No. The strike vote gives our bargaining committee the authority to call for a strike if and when circumstances warrant. Striking is a last resort, and our bargaining committee would only recommend striking if it believed that it was the only way to move toward a fair contract.

When a strike will happen and how long it will last will be decisions made democratically by membership during membership meetings. All members are welcome to attend these meetings, offer their opinions, and vote on strike-related logistics. We encourage you to keep an eye on your emails for HGSU updates so you can participate fully! 

When does a strike end?

Ending a strike is a democratic decision that will occur when members feel we have reached a sufficient “tentative agreement” (TA) on our contract. Members will then vote to ratify this TA, and if that vote passes, that TA will become our contract. As above, we will make this decision in meetings. Come to meetings!

If I vote “yes,” am I obligated to strike?

No, you are not obligated to strike if you vote Yes. But a strike is only effective through mass participation! What we win in our contract depends upon our unity in a strike, should one be called. 

What would a strike look like?

There are two elements of a strike: withholding labor and picketing. 

• Withholding labor means that we would cease doing the labor protected by our contract. For most of us, this means stopping our work teaching and researching under the direction of our PIs and supervisors. We do this because the University is ultimately run by its workers – if they don’t agree to the basic rights and protections we are fighting for, we can and will stop University business as usual. This is a fundamental right we maintain under the law.
• Picketing makes the absence of our labor visible to the broader University community and lets them know what we are fighting for. Check out this video of our very first strike in 2019. This strike won us our very first contract, which included guaranteed sick leave, guaranteed raises, an independent process to adjudicate workplace disputes, and nearly $1 million to support childcare and healthcare expenses. 

We know that the lines between your academic work (which you should not strike from) and labor you do for the University can be blurry. To address this, we have developed specific strike guides/worksheets to help support workers in understanding what work they should withhold. Contact your stewards directly with any questions and to develop specific strike plans that make sense for you

Will I lose pay on strike?

The Harvard administration is not required to cut the pay of any graduate worker engaging in their legal right to strike. However, they may choose to do so to intimidate or otherwise coerce a worker to continue working. Given this risk, to support our right to strike, our parent union, the United Auto Workers (UAW), has created a Strike Fund that supports striking workers and that is funded by our dues and the dues of other UAW members. The Strike Fund provides $500/wk to workers on strike, as strike pay. Strike pay is taxable. 

To be eligible for strike pay, workers must perform strike duties for at least 8h/wk for hourly workers and 15h/wk for salaried workers. Both citizen and non-citizen student workers can legally receive strike pay. If you were carved out after June 30, 2025, you will need to sign up to pay dues through the union to be eligible for strike pay – you can sign up here. 

Strike duties are varied and will include being outside on pickets, drafting communications about the strike, creating strike materials, etc. More information about strike duties will be finalized soon. 

Community allies also typically create Hardship Funds which may help provide support to striking workers beyond strike pay. We will provide updates about any such funds in the coming weeks. 

Is it legal to strike? What if I’m a non-citizen student worker?

Yes. The right to strike is protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which allows unions to engage in concerted activities to bargain collectively. However, in order to be protected by this right, you must strike fully from your job and cannot pick and choose what you strike from (known as “partial striking”). 

The NLRA does not differentiate between citizens and non-citizens. The right to strike applies equally to U.S. citizens and noncitizens, meaning that you have the same rights and protections for striking as domestic workers (as well as to join a union, vote in union elections, and engage in other union activities). Further, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) cannot ask you questions about your union membership or participation in lawful union activity. Nor can they use such information in determining the outcome of your immigration/visa application. Out of tens of thousands of international graduate students, postdocs, and researchers that are part of UAW, there has never been any reported instances of participation in a union negatively impacting visa or permanent residency applications, including during our first strike which occurred under the first Trump administration. 

We understand that under the current Trump administration, workers have concerns that legal protections don’t matter. We have created guidance for international workers who may have varying risk tolerances going into striking so that you engage in strike duties which respect your risk assessments – please email [email protected] for this guide and to talk through your specific situation. 

If I am carved out, am I legally allowed to strike?

The UAW’s (our parent union) position is that carved out workers are workers, and as such, they have the legal right to strike. Workers in carved-out positions participated in our labor strikes in both 2019 and 2021 without any repercussions. As with all striking research assistants, the strike should not impact your academic progress, which will limit Harvard’s ability to retaliate as they do not consider carved out workers employees (contact your stewards for the RA strike guide, which has more details). 

Ultimately, our power and protection comes from our numbers. The more carved out workers that strike, the harder it is for Harvard to retaliate, and the easier it is for us to win a new contract – which would pave an easier legal path for us to fight our carved-out status.

Will I face any retaliation for striking?

Employer retaliation is against the law. It is illegal for an employer to retaliate against any student employee for exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). If you have concerns, we recommend documenting your status-quo before the strike (e.g., pay rates or where you’re at with your academic progress) and anything you think could be retaliatory during and after the strike so that we can make the best case possible for you. 

We also strongly recommend building plans with your labmates or teaching team to strike together so that we have power in numbers. Our greatest source of power and protection is each other. With thousands of workers, spread across every department, we know that the Harvard administration cannot target one of us without targeting all of us. Together, we will stand up and fight for each and every single member. Alone, we have no power; together, the administration cannot threaten us.

How do faculty feel about a possible strike? 

We have been on strike twice before and many faculty have been supportive of these strikes because they know that we can only do the research and teaching we came here to do when we can afford to live in the area and work in safety. It would also be a violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) for your advisor or supervisor to retaliate against or penalize you for talking about or participating in union activities, including signing union cards, wearing union paraphernalia, asking others (on non-work time and in non-work areas) to join, participating in votes, or striking. They also cannot discourage you from striking. 

If you would like guidance about how to have conversations with faculty about striking, please contact your stewards for talking points you can use. 

What can we expect from the University?

Once we open a SAV, the Harvard administration will likely start writing to faculty and other members of the Harvard community about a strike not being necessary, about how they are negotiating in good faith, about how they couldn’t possibly afford our proposals, and how we are overreacting. Here’s some responses we have to concerns they may raise:

“We cannot afford these proposals!”

They can – see here. 

“The strike is not necessary –  we can continue the bargaining process as normal to make progress on the issues the union has raised.”

We have been bargaining in good faith for a year (with 19 total sessions), and the University has rejected the vast majority of our proposals without any alternatives to the issues we have raised. When they have responded, they have at times taken away existing rights and protections, like taking away language that guarantees the right to union representation during harassment, discrimination, and bullying proceedings and removing protected identity categories in favor of a University policy they can change at will (an especially frightening position as they are actively bargaining with the Trump administration). Some of our proposals, they haven’t even responded to – taking over EIGHT MONTHS to respond to our proposals on non-citizen worker rights, despite it being one of the biggest priorities for our members. 

The University clearly does not feel any urgency to respond to our proposals or take our issues seriously at the bargaining table. It has been a year of arguments, rallies, testimonials, and petitions to no avail – we are still far apart on most of our core issues. There’s no reason to trust that simply doing more of the same will lead to any movement on real recourse, cost-of-living adjustments, non-citizen worker rights, or any of the issues we’re fighting for. 

“A strike harms our University community/students.”

The point of a strike is to disrupt the normal operations of the University. However, it’s not the case that it harms others. In previous strikes, many students have learned a great deal from coming out to the picket and supporting their teachers and lab mentors. It’s also important to recenter in why we would strike – a strike is a last resort and not anyone’s first option. We would strike because all other options to win the rights and protections we deserve have been exhausted. And ultimately, if the University thinks a strike would be so harmful, they have the power to stop it by working with us on our proposals. We’re not asking for the world – we’re simply asking to be able to afford to live and to be safe in our workplaces, and the richest and most prestigious University in the world can surely make that happen.  

“Strike actions violate our Campus Use Rules”

Campus Use Rules (see fn. 2) do not apply to protected union activity covered under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which includes strike actions.

“Striking may mean that you fail to meet certain academic requirements and inhibit your degree progress”

We are not striking from our work as students, but as workers. As such, our academic requirements/degree progress should not be threatened through strike actions. We understand that drawing this line can at times be confusing, especially for research assistants (RAs). We encourage RAs to contact their stewards for strike guides that help navigate these concerns. 

“We’ve made a fair and generous offer”

They sure haven’t! We have made no progress on any of our core demands, and the University’s bargaining team has rejected the vast majority of the language across our proposals. See our bargaining tracker for the session-by-session breakdown. 

After a year of bargaining and a year without access to the benefit funds our workers rely on for childcare, healthcare, and emergency expenses, our decision-making must be anchored in what we think will work. Ultimately members decide whether we strike, and we would encourage you, amidst the University talking points to ask yourself – what do you think it will take to win?