Striking Dining Services Union Launches Online Fundraiser

Harvard’s dining services union launched an online fundraiser to provide “material support” for its striking workers.

The University’s dining halls have been closed since last Wednesday, when Harvard’s dining hall workers reported to the picket lines in a historic strike. Now, as HUDS employees enter their second week of picketing, they are asking for financial support from Harvard affiliates.

A Harvard University Dining Services member of UNITE HERE Local 26 pickets outside of the faculty Club on Quincy Street Wednesday. By Zennie L. Wey

Citing Harvard’s $35.7 billion endowment, UNITE HERE Local 26—the Boston-based union representing Harvard’s dining services workers—called on supporters to donate to the union’s “Strike Assistance Fund,” which will provide for necessities like groceries, diapers, and workers’ utility bills, according to the fundraiser’s website.

“Harvard dining hall workers don’t have Harvard’s billions to fight,” the fundraiser’s homepage reads. “They need you.”

While employees and Local 26 have used Harvard’s historic capital campaign as a rallying cry, University officials have argued that they cannot simply pull money out of a $7 billion pot to pay the workers more, because many donations to the fundraising drive are restricted.

As the strike continues into its second week, Harvard’s dining hall workers are feeling its financial impact.

In an interview Tuesday, the union’s lead negotiator Michael Kramer contrasted the HUDS workers’ ability to financially sustain the strike with the University’s.

“If it was simply a question of money, the University is going to win that contest with just about anyone,” Kramer said.

As of Thursday evening, the fund had garnered over 120 contributions of undisclosed amounts.

A group of alumni in a similar donation drive have pledged to cease donations to the University and instead direct any monies to the union’s Hardship Fund. According to Local 26 president Brian Lang, that fund will pay the striking employees $40 per day. On average, HUDS employees make $21.89 per hour during the normal work week.

The fundraising campaign marks the latest in a series of efforts the union has made to solicit donations and other support from Harvard affiliates. In an interview last week, a union spokesperson said donations of food and cash from faculty members, alumni, and other anonymous individuals, had been streamed in since the union first began its historic strike. In addition, the Student Labor Action Movement—an undergraduate group that supports the employees—has disseminated information about the negotiations and marshaled undergraduates to the worker’s side.