Harvard Graduate School of Design Fabrication Lab Workers Overwhelmingly Vote to Unionize

Student workers at the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Fabrication Lab voted 69-4 on Tuesday to unionize.

The win for Fabrication Workers United-United Auto Workers comes just over one month after the Fab Lab’s 87 technical assistants filed for unionization in early October.

“I feel really excited,” said technical assistant Livia K. Miller, a graduate student at the GSD and a lead organizer for FWU-UAW. “I feel really proud of all the hard work that we’ve all collectively done, but I also feel like it’s just the beginning of another long process where now we move into negotiation with Harvard.”

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a statement that “we look forward to meeting with Fabrication Workers United/United Auto Workers to begin the process of negotiating this first contract.”

“We are optimistic of the work ahead that it will lead to agreement of a contract that is beneficial to everyone,” he added.

Technical assistants at the Fab Lab — who work on projects and help maintain machines like 3D printers and laser cutters — were one of few non-union student employees at the GSD. Several other positions — including doctoral graders, teaching assistants, and research assistants — are represented by Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers.

Miller said the lack of a union for technical assistants “felt like a huge inequity that we needed to remedy.”

“The last few years have started to see a real conversation starting in architecture and design about labor — who’s doing it and how they’re being represented,” she said. “Now is just a productive time for Harvard and for the GSD specifically to start engaging with those broader conversations.”

In preparation for their first contract negotiation with the University, FWU-UAW will need to elect a bargaining committee.

But after the push for unionization, Miller said, the group will take some time to rest before beginning the bargaining committee process in the spring. Though the union has yet to determine its negotiating priorities, Miller said “staffing and pay transparency” are key issues for the group.

“I think the next few weeks will mostly just be focused on checking in with our base, recovering from the big push, getting the semester done,” Miller said. “I think we’ll hit the ground running in January.”

—Staff writer Aran Sonnad-Joshi can be reached at aran.sonnad-joshi@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @asonnadjoshi.