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Nearly two years after unionizing, Harvard’s undergraduate worker union is nowhere near a first contract, leaving student workers stranded as the University closes several of their workplaces.
Harvard Undergraduate Workers Union-United Auto Workers, which represents students in non-academic campus jobs at libraries and cafes, has met 18 times with negotiators from the University since March 2024. They have agreed on no substantive provisions.
The union’s bargaining committee, which is supposed to make tentative contract decisions for the unit, has also fluctuated widely as members graduated since bargaining began. The committee lost half of its members in both 2024 and again in 2025 because they graduated out.
The unit took another hit over the summer when Harvard shuttered its diversity offices — leaving dozens of union-represented workers unsure of future employment.
Many of the former diversity office interns also said they were left in the dark about their workplace closure for weeks, something firm contract language could have mitigated had a final agreement been reached.
While first contracts are often the longest to negotiate due to the number of new agreements to reach, HUWU-UAW’s changing unit has created additional complications. While bargaining, they have already seen multiple workplaces close, including the Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub, the Barker Cafe, and Harvard’s diversity offices.
HUWU-UAW and the University also have not yet agreed to a consistent pace of bargaining for the semester.
According to a University spokesperson, Harvard offered five bargaining dates for the fall, though HUWU-UAW has not agreed to any of them yet. Organizer and Widener Library worker Sylvia G. Traw ’26 wrote in a statement that the offered dates were within business hours and only on days other than Friday, making it difficult for undergraduates to attend.
In the interim, organizers have been working to fill empty seats. The union sent an email on Sept. 3 to workers, notifying them that workers who had signed union cards were nominated for the bargaining committee and that there were “many open positions.” According to the email, they would forgo an election if not enough students volunteered for the committee.
Traw confirmed that union members currently undergoing training to join the committee will be elected by acclamation.
The union has already tentatively agreed with the University on three standard contract provisions, including a broad statement of purpose and an article to ensure the contract remains valid even if parts of it are made illegal by changes to laws. Though a third agreement has been reached for the moment on unit scope, Traw said the union is planning to renegotiate which workplaces are included in the unit after the diversity offices’ closure changed classifications.
Twenty-three other non-economic articles remain in limbo — and according to bargaining committee member Aaryan K. Rawal ’26, the union will only bring wages and other financial articles to the table after the others have been negotiated.
Some of the proposed articles have already proved contentious. Requests for mandatory first-aid training for each union workspace have been repeatedly rebuffed by the University, which also countered an article on non-discrimination protections with a shorter policy mirroring the one it proposed to grad student and non-tenure-track faculty unions.
Rawal added that the University has been “taking out things that are really common sense” in its counterproposals to the union.
“It’s just hard to go negotiate with that,” they said.
A University spokesperson declined to comment on the negotiations.
—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.
