HUCTW Members Rally In Support of Union and Pro-Palestine Activists

Rank-and-file members of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers rallied in front of the Smith Campus Center on Tuesday to protest Harvard’s response to pro-Palestine demonstrations and union employees’ activism.

Around 25 people attended the event. Six volunteer “legal observers,” who serve as a third-party from the National Lawyers Guild, were also present.

Speakers at the rally encouraged listeners to support activists. “Silence is complicity,” said Karameh Kuemmerle, a member of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine.

“This should be a cause of rage for us, and we are so proud to stand with our faculty and staff and Harvard workers here when they speak up in solidarity against genocide overseas and against worker repression here at home,” said Amir Mohareb, a physician at Harvard Medical School. “We have to remember that our causes are indivisible.”

In a released statement, HUCTW Rank & File Movement, the group organizing the rally, claimed union members had been targeted for their participation in the recent wave of pro-Palestine study-ins.

“Members of our union who are pro-Palestine have also been targeted, surveilled, banned, and otherwise attacked for silent 'study-ins,’” the statement read.

The University declined to comment on the rally.

Genevieve Butler, a HUCTW rank-and-file member, compared the alleged retaliation against pro-Palestinian speech with other worker freedoms at Harvard.

“Similar to our rights to our views about issues like Palestine, we also have the right to talk about our conditions at work,” Butler said.

“Free speech is the right of the speaker,” Kuemmerle said. “It's the right of all of us to hear and engage with truth, even if it's uncomfortable for some.”

During the rally, Harvard Law School alum Rotem R. Spiegler stood facing the protestors, carrying Israeli flags and photos of victims of Hamas.

“I’m here mostly to show the students that are passing by that they are not alone, the Jewish and Israeli students,” she said.

Union members also spoke in support of individual workers Karen L. O’Brien, who claims she received an unfounded third disciplinary warning on Nov. 14 because of her status as an HUCTW union rep and “dissent” in the workplace, and Mike Nowiszewski, who union members claim was removed from his Widener Library post in August as a result of his union advocacy as SEIU 32BJ Union Shop Steward.

O’Brien is being supported by union leadership in her complaint against the University. “They are officially supporting me, helping me get access to mediation, which is coming,” O’Brien said in an interview with The Crimson.

“The energy of our country and the energy of our University here should not be spent silencing voices that seek justice,” Kuemmerle said.

—Staff writer Aran Sonnad-Joshi can be reached at aran.sonnad-joshi@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @asonnadjoshi.

—Staff writer Sheerea X. Yu can be reached at sheerea.yu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @_shuhree_.