Elizabeth Warren, Ben Stiller Support Striking Harvard Workers
Photos via Twitter/ @UNITEHERE26
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, progressive darling and former Harvard professor, showed her support for protesting food service workers at her former stomping grounds yesterday.
Unite Here Local 26, the hospitality workers union representing the Harvard cafeteria employees who have now been on strike for a week, tweeted a photo of Warren posing with the group.
As the Globe reports, the talks between the workers and leadership at the school have not yet come to an end. They seek a pay increase to $35,000 a year and a freeze on health care cost increases. The strike began Oct. 5 when a deadline for a contract negotiation passed. It’s the first strike on-campus since 1983, and the first-ever during the school year.
Warren hasn’t spoken publicly about the strike, but she has made no secret of her support for union collective action, pay increases for low-wage workers, and the so-called Fight for $15. She also dropped in at a Boston rally for the Service Employees International Union in mid-September, the Bay State Banner reports. “In this fight for fair wages, I’m with you,” she said at the time.
Thank you @Harvard grad Elizabeth Warren @SenWarren for joining striking Harvard food service workers on the picket! #SupportTheStrike #1u pic.twitter.com/oSP2zqneel
— UNITE HERE Local 26 (@UNITEHERE26) October 11, 2016
Earlier in the day, actor Ben Stiller took a break from filming a movie in Boston to show his support as well.
Even Ben Stiller grabbed a #SupportTheStrike picket sign in Harvard square as @harvard food workers strike @RedHourBenpic.twitter.com/Ip6wvQwxxt
— UNITE HERE Local 26 (@UNITEHERE26) October 11, 2016
Stiller never attended or taught at the school, but he was Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Man of the Year in 2007.
Contract negotiations, meanwhile, remain at a standstill. Marilyn Hausammann, vice president for human relations at the school, wrote in a letter published yesterday that the union has “refused to participate in any meaningful dialogue,” adding that, “We stand ready to continue to work with Local 26 and mediators to try to find a fair and reasonable resolution, but this will require engagement by the union on these issues.”
One supporter of the protest called the prestigious college’s public statements about the negotiations #Harvardsplaining.
#Harvardsplaining= Feelings when you read mass email from VP/HR says “we’ve done nothing wrong-union are greedy meanies” #SupportTheStrike
— Anne-Marie Taylor (@quiet_annearchy) October 12, 2016
Harvard has an endowment of about $35.7 billion.
Hoping to add some more star power to the effort, one supporter tweeted at Ben Affleck asking him to join the fray. No word from Affleck yet, though.
@BenAffleck Come hang with us at Harvard. Harvard kitchen workers are on strike, come hang with us on the picket line like Ben Stiller did. pic.twitter.com/JWOwuSmCLk
— chris cook (@chriscook217vp) October 12, 2016
