Why We're Voting Yes in Our Strike Authorization Vote

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/14/bloom-hawkey-vonstackelberg-harvard-strike/

By Nicholas F. Bloom, Chloe Hawkey, and Emmet von Stackelberg, Contributing Opinion Writers
Nicholas F. Bloom is an Assistant Director of Studies and a Lecturer on History and Literature. Chloe Hawkey is a Lecturer on History and Literature. Emmet von Stackelberg is a Lecturer on History and Literature.
9 hours ago

In a historic move, Harvard’s non-tenure-track faculty and post-doctoral fellows are voting on whether to authorize a strike. If two-thirds of participants vote yes, the Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers bargaining committee, which has been negotiating with the University for over a year and a half, will be empowered to call a strike.

We, three lecturers on History and Literature, are voting yes. We care too much about our teaching and about Harvard’s mission not to.

If the union goes on strike, teachers will cancel classes and researchers will stay away from their labs. Assignments will go ungraded and course material untaught. The work that keeps this University running — our work — will stop. We don’t want this outcome for students any more than the administration does.

But we cannot stand aside while Harvard, the richest university in the world, undercuts its own devotion to the education of students and the production of knowledge. As things currently stand, Harvard administrators refuse to bargain at a reasonable pace, leaving thousands of our most important educators and researchers in a vulnerable position, unable to serve students to the best of our ability.

FULL story at link above.


By Grace E. Yoon