Harvard Food Service Workers Vote to Strike

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Harvard University's food service workers voted Friday to strike, assuming they do not reach a resolution with administrators within two weeks.

In a Facebook post, UNITE HERE Local 26 called the 591-18 vote a "landslide."

According to the union, dining hall workers met with Harvard administrators Friday for the fifteenth session of bargaining, which started May 20. An additional session with a federal mediator is scheduled for September 27, the union said in an online update.

The Boston Globe reports that workers are asking for a guaranteed minimum annual salary of $35,000 for workers who want the option of working a full 52 weeks a year. Additional issues center around health care.

Harvard administrators released a statement to the paper, saying the university is committed to good faith bargaining, and adding that despite the school's seasonal schedule, Harvard's workers are "still among 'the highest paid in the region,' earning an average hourly wage of $21.89."

"If a strike cannot be averted, it would be the first for Harvard food service workers since 1983, when the union staged a one-day work stoppage over wage issues," the Globe reports.

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Photo by InSapphoWeTrust, via Flickr/Creative Commons