Harvard has a $50 billion endowment. Fifty. Billion. And they just told their graduate workers — the people who actually teach the classes and run the labs — that a 74% pay raise to equalize teaching fellows with research assistants is too much to ask. Their counter-offer? “Modest raises.” The strike vote passed with 96% support. April 21 is the deadline. One bargaining session left.
This is the same playbook every corporation runs. Doesn’t matter if it’s a meatpacking plant in Colorado or the most prestigious university on the planet — the people at the top would rather blow the whole thing up than share. Harvard’s grad workers make the machine run. Without them, there are no classes, no research, no rankings, no endowment. And Harvard knows this. They just don’t care. Walk out. Shut it down.