The United Auto Workers filed a complaint against Harvard University on Wednesday, alleging that the school violated the rights of graduate student workers by quashing their efforts to organize in opposition to their university’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza. In the filing made to the National Labor Relations Board, the UAW accused the university of surveilling employees, and retaliating against them for their workplace-related action, according to Bloomberg. The group also alleged the school denied employees legal representation during their investigative meetings, and changed school policies to target student activists. The complaint asserts that a university’s investments in Israel constitute a workplace issue, and therefore, student workers’ organizing efforts are “protected concerted activity” against their working conditions. This view supported by NLRB’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo. As such, the complaint has the potential to set a new expansive precedent for how universities must approach students protesting Israel.
