More than 200 graduate student workers at Harvard University have rallied outside University Hall, urging senior administrators and academic deans to intervene in a week-long strike and help resolve an ongoing dispute over wages, workplace protections and employment conditions.
Members of the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers (HGSU-UAW) staged the demonstration on Tuesday, November 3, and delivered a letter to Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean Emma Dench, calling on university leadership to press for a fair contract settlement.
The rally came one week after more than 4,000 graduate and undergraduate student workers represented by the union launched their second strike of 2026 following unsuccessful contract negotiations with Harvard.
The union is demanding higher wages and improved benefits, stronger protections for international and non-citizen workers, and an independent grievance procedure to address workplace harassment, discrimination and bullying.
The letter delivered to Dench urged university leaders to recognize the contribution of student workers and advocate for an agreement that protects their rights and working conditions.
“We need University leadership like yourself to do what is right and advocate for the workers that make this University what it is,” the letter stated.
Several speakers, including Harvard Law School Professor Nikolas E. Bowie, Cambridge City Councilor Ayah A. Al-Zubi and local elected officials, addressed the demonstrators in support of the workers.
Bowie criticized what he described as inconsistencies between Harvard’s public opposition to federal government actions affecting international students and its position on protections for international student workers.
Local lawmakers also expressed solidarity with the striking workers, emphasizing that Harvard should recognize its financial capacity and offer better employment conditions to those supporting its teaching and research activities.
Harvard, however, has maintained that another strike is unwarranted, pointing to its latest contract proposal. The university offered an immediate 6.1 percent pay increase upon ratification, followed by annual raises of three percent over the contract period. Harvard says the proposed increases would amount to nearly 16 percent over the life of the agreement.
The university has also disputed the union’s position on certain employment protections and has previously argued that some research-based graduate stipends should not qualify as employment under federal labor law.
The latest walkout follows a 40-day strike earlier in 2026, the longest in the union’s history, which ended without a new contract. The union’s previous agreement expired in June 2025, leaving negotiations unresolved.
The dispute has also affected campus activities, with union picketing disrupting a General Education midterm examination at Emerson Hall earlier in the week. Harvard undergraduate deans criticized the disruption, saying students should be able to take examinations without interference. The union maintained that the strike would continue until workers secured a fair agreement.
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The continuing dispute highlights growing tensions over graduate worker compensation, international employee protections and workplace accountability at one of the world’s most prestigious universities.
