Letter to the Editor

Treat them with respect and dignity

To the Editor,

Dear President Garber and Provost Manning,

We, the undersigned political leaders of Massachusetts, call on the Harvard administration to bargain in good faith to come to fair agreements with the Harvard Academic Workers-UAW (HAW-UAW), the union of non-tenured teaching faculty and researchers at Harvard University, and the Harvard Graduate Student Union-UAW (HGSU-UAW), the union of graduate and undergraduate student workers, that sufficiently address their workplace concerns and attend to the high cost of living in the region.

Unions everywhere fight for safe working conditions, and HAW and HGSU members deserve the industry standard protections of grievance and arbitration procedures for issues of discrimination and harassment in the workplace, as well as codified protections for their international workers. It is also crucial that the democratic rights of members are respected and that these workers are not arbitrarily carved out or excluded from participation in their union.

We understand that both unions have been negotiating a contract with Harvard University for 20 months and 13 months, respectively, and have each called for a strike authorization vote and potential strike action in the event a resolution to negotiations cannot be found. As one of the largest private employers in the region, Harvard has a responsibility to the workers in Massachusetts to treat them with respect and dignity. These workers are the backbone of education and research at Harvard, and they deserve fair recognition of their work that sustains the critical mission of the University.

We urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that these workers receive the contract that they deserve.

Sincerely,

State Senator

Lydia M. Edwards

State Representative

Marjorie C. Decker