Workers all around the country are on the picket line for better conditions and compensation. 10,000 United Auto Workers at John Deere are striking in Iowa and Illinois. 700 Massachusetts nurses and 450 steelworkers in West Virginia have organized as well. Among this sea of organized labor is the Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers. Over 90% of union members voted to authorize the strike, which takes place Wednesday, Oct 27. Amidst yet another economic crisis and a global pandemic, labor is beginning to take a national stand, and there’s good reason to support it.
To understand the need to support the Harvard Graduate Student Union is to understand unions. A union is a democratic organization formed by workers to conjure a strong voice in their workplace. As a part of a union, workers can negotiate from a position of strength with employers over wages, benefits, and workplace health and safety. Organized labor, for example, led the effort for public education for all children. Organized labor rallied for the Fair Labor Standards Act, which guaranteed a minimum wage, an eight-hour workday, and time-and-a-half overtime. Every substantial victory for the essential working class was the product of a determined, organized labor force fighting for it every step of the way.
However, labor unions have been under fire for decades. According to labor lawyer Thomas Geoghegan, the Taft-Hartley act is responsible for union decline. Passed by a Republican Congress in 1947, Taft-Hartley outlawed mass picketing, secondary strikes of neutral employers, among other things. It set precedent for Gov. Ronald Reagan, who denied Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers the right to unionize by vetoing the Agricultural Labor Relations Act in California. As president, Reagan destroyed the Professional Air Traffic Controllers union by firing 13,000 striking workers. Union membership dropped to 16 percent in 1985, down from 23 percent as recently as 1979. Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that union membership in 2020 was a mere 10.8 percent.
Due to this, massive support for labor unions is needed now more than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a weak system of labor protections, exacerbated economic inequality, and the effect of a four-decade decline in labor unions. As a result, the essential working class has dealt with unsafe environments that fail to protect them from COVID, has gotten no access to paid sick leave, and when vocal about these conditions, have had their livelihoods threatened. Not only do unions hold employers accountable to these realities, but their demands through collective bargaining preserve the dignity and security of workers.
With that said, the Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers was a big win for students here at Harvard. The union came into existence with a majority vote in April 2018. Through almost two years of negotiations and a strike in December of 2019, the union secured student workers a one-year stopgap contract. However, issues like the continued rise of the cost of living and real recourse for harassment and discrimination are still unresolved. Since March, the HGSU has been negotiating a second contract to make progress on these significant issues.
Due to the current unacceptable offers made by the administration, the union has unanimously voted to hold their second strike this Wednesday. They are fighting for compensation increases to keep up with the rising cost of living. Additionally, they are pushing for key provisions and resources for survivors of sexual violence. These provisions include majority-neutral, third-party individuals sitting on hearing panels for investigations, financial assistance to cover lawyers in Title IX cases, and access to the grievance procedure for all identity-based harassment and discrimination cases.
It is important to note that it is not the union’s dying wish to go on strike. Rather, since these negotiations have lasted for several months, the strike is necessary to put political pressure on the administration. Today, the Harvard Graduate Student Union represents all graduate teaching and research workers — as well as almost 500 undergrad teaching fellows and course assistants. Supporting the Harvard Graduate Student Union supports a healthy, secure, student-essential working class, empowered to teach to their greatest capacity and maintain their valued dignity and integrity.
There must be solidarity between Harvard student workers and their peers. Eugene Victor Debs, the founder of the American Railway Union, emphasized this point. “All of us who are here to enlist in the service of the working class need to have faith in each other,” he said at the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. “If we get together in the true working-class spirit, the entire movement is vitalized, and side by side and shoulder to shoulder we move forward to certain and complete victory.”
If you want to support the Harvard Graduate Student Union, sign the community letter of support and reach out to the Provost Office to voice your solidarity. Finally, consider laying down your laptops and joining your fellow students on the picket line.
Image Credit: Image by Claudio Schwarz is licensed under the Unsplash License.
