[act-ma] 10/22 Major mobilization for Harvard dining hall workers on strike!

[Charlie Welch]

Save the date! Major mobilization for Harvard dining hall workers on 
strike!

Saturday October 22, 3pm

Cambridge Common

Click here to download the flyer 
<http://www.local26.org/wp-content/uploads/Harvard-strike-oct22.pdf>


    Striking Harvard Workers Take their Fight to Harvard Fellows
    <http://www.local26.org/2016/10/striking-harvard-workers-take-their-fight-to-harvard-fellows/>

October 12, 2016/in food service 
<http://www.local26.org/category/food-service/>, Harvard 
<http://www.local26.org/category/harvard/>, Updates 
<http://www.local26.org/category/updates/> /

*Striking Harvard Workers Take their Fight to Harvard Fellows*

/Workers and alumni demand action from Harvard’s real decision makers 
//as administrators fail to end strike after a week/

Harvard dining hall workers who are on their 9^th  day of a strike for 
annual incomes of at least $35,000 a year and to stop the 
administration’s demand that they pay more for basic medical services 
are reaching out to Harvard’s real decision makers.

On Thursday, UNITE HERE local affiliates and Harvard alumni will protest 
outside the offices of Harvard Corporation fellows in New York City, DC, 
Chicago, Berkeley, Menlo Park, Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. They 
are demanding that the Harvard Corporation— comprised of 13 fellows and 
Harvard University President Drew Faust—intervene to help food service 
workers reach an agreement.

Harvard dining hall workers have been on strike since October 5^th . 
Workers began negotiations with Harvard administrators May 20^th  and 
have held more than 20 sessions. The strike has gained national 
attention and the support of undergraduate and graduate students, 
alumni, Harvard employees and faculty. Workers, students and staff have 
picketed, marched and rallied all over Harvard University campus and 
Harvard Square for eight days but the administration has yet to resolve 
this issue.

“It is clear to us that all this time we’ve been bargaining with people 
who are not actually able to make decisions for Harvard University,” 
said UNITE HERE Local 26 President Brian Lang. “We call on the decision 
makers of Harvard University to step forward to meet with us so we can 
come to a just agreement.”

The Harvard Corporation “exercises fiduciary responsibility with regard 
to the University’s academic, financial, physical resources and overall 
well-being.” The Corporation is made up of 13 fellows, the President and 
the Treasurer.

The corporation’s fellows include: *Joseph O’Donnell*, chairman of the 
board of Centerplate, *Karen Gordon Mills*, president of private equity 
group MMP Group, *Laurence Bacow*, former president of Tufts University, 
*Shirley M. Tilghman*, former president of Princeton University and 
director for Google Inc, *Nannerl O. Keohane*, former president of Duke 
University and Wellesley College, *Kenneth I. Chenault*, Chairman and 
CEO of the American Express Company, *Susan L. Graham, James Breyer, 
William F. Lee, Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Theodore V. Wells, Jr., and 
Paul Finnegan.*

*###*

*For Immediate Release: **Thursday, October 13^th , 2016*

*Contact:* Tiffany Ten Eyck, tteneyck at local26.org 
<mailto:tteneyck at local26.org>, 313-515-1807


  Are insurance policies saving patients money, or keeping them from the
  treatment they need?

/By/ Micah Johnson /and/ Sanjay Kishore

September 30, 2016

There’s an outbreak of a hidden epidemic — unaffordable employer-based 
health insurance, especially for low-income workers — at Harvard, a 
place where it should never occur.

As medical students at Harvard, we were deeply troubled to learn that 
our university was proposing changes to dining workers’ health plans 
that would make essential health care unaffordable. After months of 
negotiation, the dining workers’ union voted to authorize a strike 
<http://harvardmagazine.com/2016/09/harvard-dining-hall-workers-vote-to-strike>, 
which will launch on Wednesday 
<http://www.local26.org/2016/09/breaking-harvard-dining-hall-workers-announce-strike-october-5/> 
if a deal is not reached. The campus has rallied around the workers, 
circulating a petition of support 
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScGZT5eOXWgeDxLZIc-bY8xdZFFJD6V3wkOlVJf_SK_emJ7Cg/viewform> 
signed by*2,500 students*, including us, in advance of federal mediation 
held earlier this week.

In the dining workers’ fight with Harvard, we see a microcosm of current 
challenges for health insurance across America.

The affordability of health insurance plans comes down to two factors: 
premiums and out-of-pocket costs. How affordable are employer plans? A 
team of Harvard medical students compared the plan 
<https://www.scribd.com/document/324866142/Harvard-HUDS-Insurance-Analysis> 
Harvard proposed for the dining workers to what would be available on 
the Massachusetts health exchange. (State exchanges were set up under 
the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, to facilitate the 
purchase of health insurance by individuals and families.)