{"id":217,"date":"2026-05-29T04:33:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=217"},"modified":"2026-05-29T04:33:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:33:30","slug":"mit-grad-students-rally-on-commencement-day-harvard-students-picket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=217","title":{"rendered":"MIT grad students rally on commencement day, Harvard students picket"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>MIT graduate student workers rallied before the university\u2019s commencement Thursday, while those at Harvard picketed outside Harvard Yard during graduation ceremonies.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=215\">Events this week in Camberville: Pride Patio Party, Celtic art, &amp; Eve Plumb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Over 100 people gathered outside MIT\u2019s Lobby 7 at 77 Massachusetts Avenue to rally in support of graduate student workers\u2019 push for a new contract. Most of those gathered were members of United Electrical Workers Local 256 \u2013 MIT Graduate Student Union, which represents 3,000 graduate student workers, and Service Employees International Union Local 32 BJ, which represents around 600 MIT facilities workers. They spent an hour demanding that administrators stop stalling contract negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>The current contract expires on Sunday. Only four half-day bargaining sessions have taken place since April 24. Student workers want health care coverage, fair wage increases and protections for immigrant workers against the Trump administration to be included in the new contract.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMIT administration has been stalling,\u201d fourth-year graduate student Sara Wilson told the crowd. \u201cThey\u2019re refusing to negotiate on the protections that every graduate worker in this crowd deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The rally occurred hours before MIT\u2019s OneMIT commencement ceremony, as graduates dressed in black robes and caps waited in lines stretching down Massachusetts Avenue. They watched rallygoers wearing red t-shirts hold signs saying, \u201cMIT workers won\u2019t wait\u201d and \u201cOne union, one fight\u201d and chant \u201cWe got the power\u201d and \u201cMIT works because we do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilson, area chief steward of the School of Engineering and a member of the union\u2019s bargaining committee, said that the union\u2019s proposals are based off of input from thousands of student workers who completed bargaining surveys. She told the crowd administrators are threatened by the union and are using negotiations to try to dismantle it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMIT is attacking our union shop because a strong union wins strong contracts,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAnd they want to weaken our union so they can give us a weaker contract for this contract fight and every future contract fight to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=213\">Chicken sub and froyo at Saloniki<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another speaker was Rich Olszewski, director of higher education bargaining for SEIU Local 32 BJ. He said his union began negotiating with MIT administrators last week on a contract that would provide living wages for families of four, reduced healthcare costs, protections for immigrant workers and funds for attorneys\u2019 fees and professional development courses for employees, paid for by MIT. He told the crowd MIT, in spite of funding and enrollment challenges, still has a lot of money.<\/p>\n<p>MIT administrators did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>State Rep. Mike Connolly said the graduate student union asked him to attend and has his full support. \u201cI think MIT can and should do more\u201d to give workers in both unions stronger contracts, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Connolly said he chose not to attend Harvard\u2019s commencement ceremony hours earlier because he didn\u2019t want to infringe on the student picket there, where graduate student workers have been on strike since April 21. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu earlier this week said she would not serve as Class Day speaker at Harvard Law School on Wednesday because it would mean crossing the picket line.<\/p>\n<p>Denish Jaswal, president of Harvard Graduate Students Union \u2013 United Auto Workers Local 5118, estimated between 300 and 400 workers picketed between 5:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. In a text afterward, Jaswal said \u201cWe distributed thousands of buttons, flyers, grad cap toppers and fans to attendees to show their support for our union\u2019s efforts, disrupted [administration] portions of the commencement ceremony with loud instruments (especially vuvuzelas) and had several large marches and pickets once the ceremony wrapped up. Many grad workers also ended the [Graduate School of Arts and Sciences] diploma awarding ceremony with HGSU chants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The HGSU represents over 4,000 Harvard student workers.<\/p>\n<p>A strike may also come from MIT\u2019s graduate student union, said its president, Lauren Chua. She said it would require a vote of union members, and it was important \u201cto reach everybody and understand what it will take [to go on strike],\u201d Chua said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to go on strike but if that\u2019s what it\u2019s going to take to settle a fair contract, that\u2019s a decision for every member in our union to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=211\">CRLS Sports: Crew teams shine at championship events<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MIT graduate student workers rallied before the university\u2019s commencement Thursday, while those at Harvard picketed outside Harvard Yard during graduation ceremonies. Read more Events this week in Camberville: Pride Patio Party, Celtic art, &amp; Eve Plumb Over 100 people gathered outside MIT\u2019s Lobby 7 at 77 Massachusetts Avenue to rally in support of graduate student [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[90,108,110,28],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","tag-harvard","tag-labor","tag-mit","tag-strike"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MIT grad students rally on commencement day, Harvard students picket - Cambridge Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=217\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MIT grad students rally on commencement day, Harvard students picket - Cambridge Moving Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MIT graduate student workers rallied before the university\u2019s commencement Thursday, while those at Harvard picketed outside Harvard Yard during graduation ceremonies. 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