{"id":2703815,"date":"2026-11-10T19:16:02","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T00:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/shut-it-down-effort-accelerates-at-harvard-as-second-union-joins-strike\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T19:28:33","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T00:28:33","slug":"shut-it-down-effort-accelerates-at-harvard-as-second-union-joins-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/shut-it-down-effort-accelerates-at-harvard-as-second-union-joins-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shut It Down\u2019 Effort Accelerates at Harvard as Second Union Joins Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fshut-it-down-effort-accelerates-at-harvard-as-second-union-joins-strike%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2703815&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Harvard faces an escalating labor showdown as the UAW\u2019s Harvard Academic Workers joined the harvard graduate Student Workers strike, involving about 6,500 employees and prompting canceled classes. Protesters chanted \u201cshut it down,\u201d criticized Harvard\u2019s wealth (endowment $68B) and demanded higher pay and protections; Harvard offered a $75,000 minimum for lecturers\/preceptors and reclassification upon ratification. Key disputes include union fees for nonmembers and whether striking workers must forfeit pay for missed hours. The walkout, framed as the largest in Harvard history, contrasts with earlier, more collaborative campus labor relations.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<section id=\"article\">\n<article data-post-title=\"\u2018Shut It Down\u2019 Effort Accelerates at Harvard as Second Union Joins Strike\" data-post-slug=\"http:\/\/analysis-abdul-el-sayed-comes-up-short-on-capitol-hill\" data-post-url id=\"print-2172497\">\n<div>\n<p><h2>One undergraduate had seven classes canceled, a parent says<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tHarvard teachers and graduate students affiliated with the United Auto Workers rallied November 10, 2026 on the plaza in front of Zimmer Hall. It was the first day of the strike for some and week three for others. (Ira Stoll)\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Now Harvard doesn\u2019t just have President Trump on its case, it also has an additional confrontation with the president of the United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain.<\/p>\n<p>The two battles may seem distinct. Trump is a pro-Israel Republican, while Fain spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention and has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/business\/autos\/2026\/07\/16\/uaw-shawn-fain-monitor-neil-barofsky-phone-call-investigation-anti-semitism\/90912746007\/\">clashed<\/a> with the UAW\u2019s court-appointed monitor over anti-Israel statements by Fain.<\/p>\n<p>Yet both Trump and Fain have met resistance in seeking financial settlements from Harvard, which valued its endowment at $68 billion as of June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Harvard\u2019s battle with the UAW entered a new phase November 10 when a second UAW-affiliated union, the Harvard Academic Workers, joined the already striking Harvard Graduate Student Workers Union. &#8220;Harvard messed up, now we\u2019re two, H-A-W,&#8221; hundreds of striking workers chanted Tuesday morning outside Zimmer Hall on Harvard\u2019s Cambridge, Mass., campus. &#8220;Harvard messed up, now we\u2019re two, H-G-S-U.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Speakers at the rally kickoff acknowledged that their absence from the classrooms would leave students with &#8220;a degraded undergraduate education,&#8221; though they blamed Harvard management intransigence, rather than their own decision to walk off the job. As one speaker put it, absolving the union of responsibility, &#8220;They pushed us to strike. Here we f\u2014ing are.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It was one of several amplified F-bombs dropped by the Harvard workers at the event. One speaker, <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/view\/gagemartin\/home\">Gage Martin<\/a>, a Benjamin Pierce Fellow in the Harvard Math Department, declared, &#8220;It\u2019s like such f\u2014ing bulls\u2014t. F\u2014 Harvard!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The striking workers described their action as including 6,500 employees and called it &#8220;the largest strike in Harvard history.&#8221; The university, America\u2019s oldest and by some measures richest, was founded in 1636.<\/p>\n<p>The director of the UAW\u2019s region 9A and a member of the UAW\u2019s international executive board, <a href=\"https:\/\/uaw.org\/regions\/uaw-region-9a\/uaw-region-9a-director\/\">Brandon Mancilla<\/a>, described the walkout as the second-largest academic worker strike in the UAW\u2019s history, after one at the University of California.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from the profanity and the frequent threats to &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WJX-nSJ3jPE\">shut it down<\/a>&#8220;\u2014&#8221;it&#8221; being Harvard University\u2014 speakers and sign-holders at Tuesday\u2019s rally presented a somewhat less radical front than the one that is <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/harvard-strike-escalates-with-library-protest-as-socialists-foreigners-force-classes-to-halt\/\">visible<\/a> by tracing the social media, public record, and connections of some of the key players. Yet some elements poked through, whether in the keffiyeh worn by one participant or in the declaration by one speaker, referring to one of Harvard\u2019s governing boards: &#8220;The Corporation says the system works. Does it? No.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Harvard Grad Student Strike 11\/10\/26\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WJX-nSJ3jPE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The American labor movement is somewhat decentralized, and strike and contract decisions are usually more heavily influenced by local members and leaders than by national union presidents. Even so, comments at the kickoff rally suggested that the national UAW hopes a win against Harvard will inspire union organizing votes on other campuses nationwide and is investing resources accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>At least some parents are frustrated with a university whose labor relations approach French levels of dysfunction. One Harvard parent, Laura Fein, told the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em>, &#8220;As a parent, I&#8217;m outraged. If our daughter knew she&#8217;d be cheated out of class time\u2014so far seven cancelled for her courses\u2014she could have gone for a Good Will Hunting library card education and saved herself a fortune in student loans. We went through the same nonsense in 2019 with our older daughter, who struggled through a difficult course solo when her instructor cancelled class and would not even reply to emails with questions. Not sure who deserves more blame this time\u2014the entitled, privileged Harvard grad students play-acting as oppressed blue collar workers, or the over-lawyered administration who let this dispute fester for years while their students lost out on hours and hours of promised education.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Those seven classes were canceled even before the second union went out on strike.<\/p>\n<p>The negotiations shine a spotlight on the fact that much of the teaching of undergraduates at Harvard is not done by tenured professors but rather by graduate students or lower-ranked academics who would not make the cut for a tenure-track job at Harvard. These people wind up teaching sections of Harvard\u2019s required expository writing course or required sophomore tutorials in majors such as Social Studies or History and Literature that operate separately from academic departments. Some of the Harvard teaching staff apparently get paid less than public school teachers in Boston-area public schools; an October 30 Harvard <a href=\"https:\/\/academicunionization.harvard.edu\/sites\/g\/files\/omnuum3256\/files\/2026-11\/University%20Proposal%20-%20Compensation%2010-30-26.pdf\">proposal<\/a> on compensation would pay a lecturer $71,355. The proposal includes an elaborate hierarchy with many subtle status and compensation distinctions\u2014&#8221;associate senior lecturer,&#8221; &#8220;lecturer-section head 12 mo,&#8221; &#8220;lecturer-section head math.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Speakers at the rally noted that Harvard\u2019s endowment has increased to $68 billion from $50 billion and argued that the workers should share in the wealth, especially given the Boston area\u2019s high housing costs.<\/p>\n<p>Harvard\u2019s provost, John Manning, and its executive vice president, Meredith Weenick, sent a November 10 <a href=\"https:\/\/academicunionization.harvard.edu\/news\/2026\/11\/update-haw-uaw-negotiations-november-10-2026\">update<\/a> saying that &#8220;Although we recognize HAW-UAW&#8217;s right to undertake the strike they began today, the University believes that with the substantial progress already made to date, outstanding issues can be resolved at the bargaining table.&#8221;        <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The University has now proposed an increase in the minimum salary for all lecturers and preceptors to $75,000, a 6.7% increase over the current minimum,&#8221; the letter said. &#8220;Based on the union\u2019s demand during negotiations, preceptors will be reclassified as lecturers once the contract is ratified.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One key negotiating point is whether teachers who don\u2019t want to join the union should be required to pay dues or fees anyway, essentially being forced to subsidize a far-left anti-Israel union as a condition of employment at Harvard. &#8220;The University believes that academic workers should be able to decide for themselves to opt to join a union or pay union dues when they accept union-eligible teaching or research positions,&#8221; the Manning and Weenick letter says. Here\u2019s hoping management doesn\u2019t cave on that one. Where is the &#8220;Crimson Courage&#8221; advocacy group urging Harvard negotiating backbone when you really need it?<\/p>\n<p>An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecrimson.com\/article\/2026\/11\/10\/passarella-harvard-paid-strike\/\">article<\/a> in the <em>Crimson<\/em> by a Harvard teaching fellow, C.J. Passarella, shed light on one mystery, which is why the &#8220;striking&#8221; workers are still being paid by Harvard.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This semester, I will earn $13,150 to teach two sections of a General Education course. The University expects that I will spend 14 hours per week doing this work. That breaks down to roughly more than $60 per hour,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;I was alarmed to learn that some HGSU members are encouraging striking workers to not report hours not worked to the University \u2014 and to thereby continue collecting their pay. \u2026 One day before the strike began, the University\u2019s Office of Labor and Employee Relations emailed salaried student workers and informed them that those striking were required to report each day they did not work, and that doing so would entail not being paid for that time. HGSU leadership has informed striking workers that there is no legal obligation to comply with this University requirement\u2026&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In contrast to Yale, which had a history of acrimonious labor relations, Harvard\u2019s own labor relations were largely peaceful and productive for decades. The Harvard Clerical and Technical Workers Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Workers, forged a strong relationship with Harvard\u2019s labor negotiator, a bow-tied professor named <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2004\/01\/john-dunlop-honored-for-his-accomplishments\/\">John Dunlop<\/a> who served as U.S. labor secretary in President Ford\u2019s administration. Dunlop believed that a good contract with a good union was good business, and the Clerical and Technical Workers website <a href=\"https:\/\/huctw.org\/about-us\/our-history\">states<\/a>, &#8220;One of our earliest slogans was \u2018It\u2019s not anti-Harvard to be pro-Union\u2019 and that idea is still crucial to us today. \u2026 Through collaboration and interest-based bargaining with our faculty and administrative colleagues, we are helping to defeat the notion of a zero-sum game of employees versus employer.&#8221; What a contrast to the &#8220;shut it down&#8221; approach of the graduate students and academic workers affiliated with the more militant UAW.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harvard strike: 7 classes canceled as UAW workers rally<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4157,"featured_media":2703816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot-2026-11-10-at-6.27.07%E2%80%AFPM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[77964,6240,87731,50590,5038],"class_list":["post-2703815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education-news-2","tag-harvard","tag-labor-movement-2","tag-strike-2","tag-unions"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot-2026-11-10-at-6.27.07%E2%80%AFPM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2703815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2703818,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703815\/revisions\/2703818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2703816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2703815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2703815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2703815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}