Guillermo: Harvard Continues to Nickel and Dime Striking Food Workers

Running a college or university isn’t always about the book learning.

Sometimes, administrators come to this realization: the Ivory Tower is just a hotel and food service business for the educated class.

But to deal with that effectively, they need to understand that a school’s workers are just as important as its “A” students.

So why hasn’t Harvard, with an endowment of $35 billion, come down off its high horse and worked to give 750 striking dining hall workers what they deserve—a living wage of $35,000 a year and a break on health care contributions?

An embarrassing strike that began Oct. 5 is closing in on a fourth week.

Four months of negotiations prior to that yielded nothing, forcing the workers to the picket lines for the first strike at the university since a one-day strike in 1983.

Harvard says the $21.89 an hour is higher than most college dining halls and better than other local dining establishments.