22 U.S. Representatives Write Letter Supporting Harvard’s Graduate Worker Strike

Twenty-two Harvard graduates currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives signed a letter on Dec. 20 in support of the university’s graduate student employees who began striking for health insurance, a higher minimum wage and better protections against discrimination on Dec. 3.

In the letter, the alumni emphasize a worker’s rights to unionize and bargain underneath the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Labor Organization Conventions 87 and 98. In addition, the letter asks that Harvard provide “a prompt and satisfactory resolution” to the strike.

The alumnus write, “We are pleased that Harvard has indicated its intention to honor the right for graduate employees to organize and bargain. However, if workers who organize cannot achieve a first contract expeditiously, they have rights on paper but not in their actual working lives.”