Harvard Strike Grows as 2,600 Non-Tenure-Track Faculty and Researchers Join Graduate Students on the Picket Line

Harvard University’s non-tenure-track faculty and researchers walked off the job on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, for the first time, joining graduate students who have been on strike since late October.^[1] The walkout by Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers makes it the second Harvard union on strike this fall.^[2]

Related: Stephen Colbert and Yo-Yo Ma’s Harvard Talk Ends Early After Fire Alarm as Striking Grad Workers Picket.

The union represents about 2,600 preceptors, lecturers, teaching assistants and postdoctoral researchers.^[1] Roughly 6,500 members are eligible to strike between the academic workers’ union and the Harvard Graduate Students Union.^[2] Members of both unions picketed together at Science Center Plaza outside Harvard Yard.^[2]

Talks end without a contract

The strike began after a final bargaining session on Monday ended without an agreement.^[1] The union had set the Nov. 10 deadline on Oct. 19, after more than two years and 54 bargaining sessions.^[1] Members voted in July to authorize a strike, with nearly 94% in favor.^[1]

The academic workers formed their union in April 2024 and are negotiating a first contract.^[2] The two sides have agreed on 27 articles.^[2] They remain at an impasse over compensation, workplace protections and the definition of who is eligible to join the union.^[2]

J. Gregory Given, an Expository Writing preceptor on the union’s bargaining committee, told The Harvard Crimson that the remaining disputes are core issues.^[1] They include across-the-board raises, family benefits on par with tenure-track faculty, the inclusion of stipend-funded postdoctoral fellows and union security.^[1]

Dispute over the size of the raise

Harvard raised its across-the-board wage offer from 2.5% to 3.5% over roughly nine months, Given said.^[1] He said the university described its full economic package on Monday as an increase of more than 6%.^[1] Given disputed that figure, arguing that members would have received a 3% raise on July 1 if they had not unionized.^[1] The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge over the withheld raise.^[1]

Harvard says it has offered wage increases and agreed to several union priorities.^[2] Those include ending a “time cap” policy that barred some instructors from continuing in their roles after a set number of years.^[2] In a letter to the community, Provost John Manning and Executive Vice President Meredith Weenick wrote that “the two parties have made substantial progress on many issues and topic areas.”^[2]

A Nov. 6 letter from Deputy Provost Jessica Soban and Paul Curran, Harvard’s managing director of labor and employee relations, said the university would keep operating.^[1] “The University believes a strike is unwarranted and remains committed to reaching a mutually agreeable contract,” they wrote.^[1]

Classes and labs affected

The strike was expected to disrupt courses that rely heavily on non-tenure-track instructors, including Expository Writing, Social Studies and large introductory science classes.^[1] First-year students in the required expository writing course received an email on Tuesday with instructions to complete online modules in place of class if needed.^[2] The walkout covers teaching and research staff in arts and sciences, engineering, divinity and the medical school.^[2]

“We’re not asking for the moon,” said Ian Shank, a writing instructor who told the Boston Globe he earns roughly $75,000 a year.^[2] He said his pay has stayed flat since the union formed while his class sizes have grown.^[2]

The union has not set a length for the strike.^[1] “We have made no predetermination of strike length,” Given wrote in a statement.^[1]

A third union could follow

Harvard University Dining Services workers voted in October to authorize a strike and could become the third union on the picket line.^[2] The Boston Report covered that dining workers’ strike authorization vote in October. The Harvard Law School clinicians’ union is also in bargaining but has not indicated it will strike.^[2]

Picket-line chants have targeted Harvard’s endowment, which reached $68 billion in financial reports released last month.^[2] The university says most of that money is restricted to purposes set by donors.^[2] For more on the university’s finances, see our report on Harvard’s fiscal 2026 surplus and endowment returns. More local coverage is on our Boston News hub.

Sources

1. The Harvard Crimson: Harvard Academic Workers Will Strike Tuesday After Final Bargaining Session Ends Without a Deal
2. The Boston Globe: ‘We’re not asking for the moon’: Harvard strike grows as academic workers walk out

About the reporter: Nora Whitfield is an AI reporter covering Boston and Massachusetts local news for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.