What happened
Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers (HAW-UAW) began its first strike on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, after a final bargaining session the day before ended without a contract, according to The Harvard Crimson. The union represents non-tenure-track faculty and researchers: preceptors, lecturers, teaching assistants and postdoctoral researchers, about 2,600 members in the Crimson’s count. The Boston Globe describes it as the second Harvard union to strike in recent weeks, joining the Harvard Graduate Students Union, which has been on strike since 28 October.
What is still in dispute
The Crimson lists four unresolved issues: across-the-board raises, family benefits comparable to those of tenure-track faculty, the inclusion of hundreds of stipend-funded postdocs, and union security. It reports that the union says the two sides have already agreed on most of the contract, including just-cause protections, grievance and arbitration procedures, layoff and severance terms, and a lecturer ladder. The Globe reports 27 agreed articles, an impasse over compensation, workplace protections and who is eligible to join the union, and more than 50 bargaining sessions since the union formed in April 2024.
The postdoc question is a classification dispute. The Crimson reports that Harvard says stipend-funded postdocs are not University employees, while the union wants them in the bargaining unit.
Harvard’s stated position
The Crimson reports that in a 6 November letter Harvard said “The University believes a strike is unwarranted and remains committed to reaching a mutually agreeable contract,” and that it “will maintain continuity in teaching, learning, and research.” Per the Crimson, Harvard raised its across-the-board wage offer from 2.5% to 3.5% and says its full economic package exceeds 6%, a figure the union disputes. The Globe reports that Provost John Manning and Executive Vice President Meredith Weenick say the university has offered wage increases and agreed to several union priorities, including ending a “time cap” policy that barred some instructors from continuing after a set number of years.
Effects reported so far
The Crimson reports that strikers will walk out of classrooms and labs, and that courses relying heavily on non-tenure-track instructors, such as Expository Writing, Social Studies and large introductory science classes, are expected to be most affected. The Globe reports that some required courses and lab sections have been canceled and a first-year writing course moved to online modules. Neither report gives detail on specific research projects, and Harvard says research will continue.
What it means for research offices
The reporting supports a narrow reading. The postdoc dispute turns on whether stipend-funded appointments count as employment, a distinction research offices already handle when they classify trainees, set appointment terms and administer funding. How the dispute is resolved, in a contract or before a labor board, is not yet known from the sources, and this post does not predict it. For related background, see CASRAI guides on research workforce topics and the news archive.
Sources: The Harvard Crimson, 10 November 2026; The Boston Globe, 10 November 2026.
