The agreement reached at Lesley follows eith months of negotiations between the Lesley workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 26, and Bon Appetit, the food service company that employs the workers and operates the dining halls on the university’s campus. It also comes on the heels of similar agreements reached across Boston area campuses where Local 26 members work. Workers at Simmons College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences all reached similar agreements earlier this fall.

Union contracts on these campuses will now rise to the standards set by struggles at Harvard University in 2016 and Northeastern University in 2017. On both campuses dining hall workers fought for a minimum annual income of $35,000 a year for full-time workers and affordable health insurance. At colleges like Lesley and Simmons, this will be a dramatic increase, with many workers seeing their hourly wages increase by over 50% during the life of the contract.

Rodamas Moran, a Lesley dining hall worker and Local 26 shop steward, spoke at a Lesley community forum in October and described the struggles of Boston area food service workers to the students and faculty gathered there. “I have two jobs,” Moran told the group. “I start here at 6:00 in the morning and get out at 2:30 and go to my other job until 11 or 11:30. I go home and I sleep maybe 3 hours. Then I get up and do it again.” Moran’s story is not uncommon among workers contending with Boston’s skyrocketing cost of living. The challenges facing Boston’s working class are not disappearing, but the city’s ding hall workers are becoming an example of the best way to confront these challenges – building a fighting labor movement.

#CambridgeMA #PeoplesStruggles #UNITEHERELocal26 #LesleyUniversity #BonAppetit

Cambridge, MA – Forty people, Harvard Law students and Boston anti-war activists, heard Tom Burke speak at Harvard Law School on April 20. Burke, a spokesperson for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, spoke on the topic of “Building the movement against Trump’s agenda and opposing political repression.”

Burke said, “We need to build our movements at a national level to stop Trump’s attacks. The airport protests opposing the Muslim ban are a good example of how we can win victories. The airport protests, like the one in Chicago, showed the people have a lot power. In NYC when the cab drivers acted in solidarity by not driving fares to JFK airport, it showed how labor can shut things down and make a difference.”

In another example Burke said, “The Milwaukee Coalition Against Trump, MCAT, forced Trump to cancel his visit to the Harley Davidson plant in Menomonee Falls. The Harley workers contacted MCAT leaders and the stage was set for thousands of people to protest Trump’s appearance. Trump was forced to cancel, just like during the primary when 10,000 shut Trump down at the University of Illinois at Chicago.”

In terms of political repression, Burke said, “Trump’s Muslim ban is political. It targets the Middle East countries the U.S. is at war with. The seven countries the U.S. bombs, drone attacks, or sends in Special Forces to kill people, like the 8-year-old girl in Yemen who was an American citizen. No arrest or trial for her.”

He continued, “This is also why Palestinian American activist Rasmea Odeh is being targeted for deportation. This is why Simon Trinidad, the Colombian revolutionary, is in solitary confinement in the Florence Colorado Supermax prison, a casualty of the Colombian peace process. The Jacksonville Five in Florida were beat up by police for holding an anti-war rally. We are seeing more of this under Trump.”

The lunchtime lecture was hosted by Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left and the Harvard Chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild.

#CambridgeMA #TomBurke #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #PoliticalRepression

Cambridge, MA – Harvard students held an event in honor of Palestinian freedom fighter Rasmea Odeh, Nov. 11. The event, titled “Justice for Rasmea Odeh!” was well attended and featured comments by Suzanne Adely of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG).

The organizers framed the discussion in the context of a history of national oppression of Palestinians and government repression of anti-war organizers. “In many ways, Rasmea's story is the story of the Palestinian people,” said event host Collin Poirot of Harvard NLG and Justice for Palestine.

Adely's presentation situated Rasmea's case in a long history of U.S. government surveillance and repression. Adely brought up the cases of Amer Jubran and Muhammad Salah, who were also targeted by the U.S. government for their leadership in the Palestinian liberation struggle and their opposition to imperialism.

The discussion also highlighted the importance of social movements and activism in support of Rasmea Odeh. “The importance of organizing and building activist support cannot be overstated,” Adely stated.

Organizers have already won significant victories in the campaign for Odeh. Not only have her supporters made Odeh a nationally known figure in the anti-war movement, but they were also able to build pressure and get Odeh out of solitary confinement during the appeal of her case. Significantly, organizers forced Odeh’s first judge to step down from the case.

Odeh's supporters have put out a national call to action for her next court date, Nov. 29, when the judge will decide whether to allow expert therapist Mary Fabri to testify about the effect of Odeh’s torture at the hands of the Israelis. All supporters who are able to attend the hearing are strongly encouraged to do so.

For supporters who cannot make it to the hearing, the Rasmea Defense Committee is asking students and community organizers to hold events and protests raising awareness about Odeh’s case. Please send details about any events you have planned to info@stopfbi.net so that the organizers in Detroit can use it in their advocacy. You can find out more about Odeh’s case and other ways to get involved at www.justice4rasmea.org.

#CambridgeMA #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #Israel #PoliticalRepression #RasmeaOdeh #Harvard

Cambridge, MA – Harvard University dining hall workers will end their strike tomorrow morning, Oct. 27, and return to work after reaching an agreement with the university that meets all of their demands. Harvard dining hall workers are reviewing and voting to ratify the contract agreement through 5 p.m. today, when this decision will become official.

Harvard dining hall workers went on strike Oct. 5 to win affordable health care and sustainable annual incomes. While the world watched, the lowest-paid workers on campus stood up to the richest university in the world. Through a strike of 22 days, this group of food service workers led a national conversation that ultimately forced one of the most powerful educational institutions to concede.

Students, faculty and alumni supported the strike.

A statement from UNITE HERE Local 26 gave the highlights of the strikes accomplishments, stating it is, “A five-year agreement that meets all our goals:

No health care costs will be shifted onto our members. Our health care plan will not change for two years. In 2019 Harvard will institute co-pay increases but will pay them for our members. Additionally, our premiums will go down.

We achieved a sustainable annual income of $35,000. In recognition of workers’ needs for sustainable income, Harvard is offering additional compensation in three installments during the summer. It will begin at $2400 in 2017 and rise to $3000 in 2020.

Retroactive wage increases on par with other unionized workers on campus of more than 2.5% a year.

Diversity and Equality Committee to address concerns regarding diversity and equal treatment of Harvard dining hall employees.

Benefits for Strikers: Harvard will cover the costs of all deductions for strikers for the duration of the strike; including medical insurance, parking, car and home insurance, and T pass deductions.”

#CambridgeMA #Strikes #HarvardStrike #HUDS

Cambridge, MA – Oct. 24 marks day 20 of the Harvard University Dining Service (HUDS) workers’ strike. The HUDS union, UNITE HERE Local 26, has been negotiating since May of this year with management. Harvard bosses refuse to budge on two key demands: fair healthcare and sustainable salaries for all full-time employees.

Harvard’s students and workers are organizing together to put pressure on Harvard administrators.

“There are two competing visions for the future of the Harvard community; a school that runs like a corporation and puts profit over people, or one that teaches solidarity and is controlled by the working-class people who keep this place running,” said Daniel Espo, a second-year student at Harvard Law School.

Workers sent a loud message earlier in the struggle by focusing on the financial elites who rule over the Harvard Corporation. Local 26 coordinated with union locals across the country to send worker solidarity delegations to the corporate offices of each of the 12 fellows of the Harvard Corporation.

Following this strategy of targeted disruption, students at Harvard organized phone bank events. Students called the Harvard Fellows on their personal and work phone numbers, leaving messages to express their outrage at the poor treatment given the people who prepare and serve their meals. One fellow, William Lee, was visited multiple times at his office in downtown Boston, first by workers and then by students. Students also sent hundreds of signed postcards to Harvard Fellows demanding they give HUDS a decent contract.

On Saturday, Oct. 22, Teamsters, SEIU and other unions joined HUDS workers in a march of over a thousand. The rally marched through rain and heavy wind before gathering on the front steps of the Cambridge City Hall. Vice Mayor Marc McGovern came out and spoke in solidarity.

On Oct. 24, Harvard students escalated their tactics. 400 students walked out of their classrooms and into the streets. The students marched to 124 Mount Auburn Street, where negotiations are held. Hundreds of students packed the building lobby, with the crowd erupting into chants, “When Harvard workers are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

Harvard negotiators were peeking out of their office windows to get a better look at the crowd. After 15 minutes of chanting, students decided to launch a spontaneous sit-in. The students chose not to leave the building lobby until Harvard negotiators gave the union a new offer. To keep spirits high, students sang songs including Solidarity Forever and We Shall Overcome.

“The only way to make sure the strike succeeds is to continue this kind of direct action that confronts the financial elites at the top of the ladder,” said second-year law student Collin Poirot.

Poirot continued, “Right now the administration thinks it can handle the strike without causing too much disruption. Our job is to amplify the strike by creating new crises that the Administration can’t handle.”

#CambridgeMA #Strikes #UNITEHERELocal26 #HarvardStrike #HarvardUniversityDiningService #HUDS

Cambridge, MA – The union of the 750 food service workers at Harvard University held a briefing and rally on Sept. 7 to announce their intent to hold a strike vote. The union, UNITE HERE Local 26, has been in negotiations with the university administration since late May, and workers say that little progress has been made on their two major issues.

One of the Harvard workers’ primary concerns is a management proposal to increase their health insurance costs. Similar increases were imposed on Harvard faculty and agreed to by some of the other unions at the university. The dining services workers have rejected this proposal because of the devastating effect that it could have on workers’ health.

Anabella Pappas, a member of the union’s bargaining committee, said during the briefing that university proposed co-pay increases would mean that “many of us will have no choice but to