As Contract Negotiations Begin, Harvard and Grad Students’ Union Are Still Debating Bargaining Rules

Harvard and its graduate student union remain stuck in a dispute over bargaining observation rules nearly a month after negotiations for their third contract were set to begin.

At a bargaining session on Friday, the sides did not begin discussing contract articles, and instead debated ground rules. University representatives contend bargaining should be held in private with the union’s designated bargaining team. Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers organizers say represented workers should be able to observe the process.

Harvard canceled the first bargaining session entirely last month because University officials worried that HGSU-UAW would bring hundreds of union members into the meeting after the union asked all members to attend on Instagram.

The Friday session went ahead as planned, but was not advertised in advance by the union.

“We held up our end of the commitment,” said Alexis R. Miranda, a member of the HGSU-UAW bargaining committee and Ph.D. student at the School of Public Health. “We showed up with just our bargaining committee members and agreed to negotiate ground rules with just our private bargaining committee. So that was who we brought.”

At the Friday meeting, the University rejected an observation policy counterproposal by the union with provisions for in-person and Zoom attendance. The initial counterproposal also included provisions for a “safety plan” for international student workers providing testimony at bargaining meetings and protections “around deportation and around police presence,” Miranda said.

The HGSU-UAW bargaining unit later sent an updated counterproposal, which Miranda said included specific pledges to “ensure that there’s respectful conduct.”

The update didn’t propose substantive changes but “was more listing out specifics of how we could ensure as a union that we’re holding up our end of the deal, that we are ensuring a respectful environment,” Miranda said.

In an email to the union’s 6,000 bargaining unit members on Monday, organizers wrote that the Harvard representatives had “claimed that the presence of observers would unfairly ‘pressure them’, and that the open bargaining in 2021 led to a ‘chilling effect’ on some of the Harvard legal team’s members” during the Friday session.

“We took those concerns seriously and asked them repeatedly to clarify them. But they refused to provide details or further negotiate any specific items; they also refused to offer a counterproposal that would meet their needs,” the union newsletter added.

The union also started a petition early this month to “demand open bargaining,” which has more than 1,100 signatures as of Wednesday evening.

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment for this article and referred The Crimson to their statement on the cancelled Feb. 28 session.

“The University thinks it is more productive to engage in good-faith discussions and negotiations with HGSU-UAW’s bargaining team at the bargaining table rather than through the media,” Newton wrote.

“Labor negotiations at the table have proven effective in reaching agreements that are beneficial to both parties, and the University is committed to pursuing that path with all of its unions, including HGSU-UAW,” he added.

While bargaining over contract provisions has not started, the union has passed four articles by general membership votes to bring to the table. Those proposals include an expanded grievance process timeline and appointment letter deadlines, in addition to articles on academic retaliation and remote work.

Other union priorities include compensation increases commensurate with inflation and agency shop, which requires all members of the bargaining unit to pay union dues whether or not they are in the union.

The union’s current contract expires June 30, and bargaining sessions take place biweekly. Union organizers declined to comment on whether the bargaining, at its current pace, will result in a contract before the current agreement with the University expires.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at amann.mahajan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.