This is from the Harvard point of view, so take it for what it’s worth. Underlined is my own emphasis. Taken from http://hr.harvard.edu/local26 : “Local 26 has proposed a $35,000 minimum salary for all employees, regardless of hours worked, and in addition has proposed a 22 percent wage increase over the next 5 years,…

I make $35,000 is a financial analyst, a high-skill job. The guy dipping french fries should not make as much as me. And, yes, my job is infinitely more important than the french fryer because you could teach a monkey to fry potatoes. That’s life. Get over it.

I don’t have a problem with workers striking. Good for them. However, neither do I have a problem with Harvard bringing in people who are willing to do the work for what Harvard is offering to replace the striking workers, firing the striking workers, then having them arrested for trespassing if they refuse to leave.

There is tons of affordable housing in Cambridge. Maybe too much so. It’s basically a city for rich and poor people; the middle class struggles to stay in town.

Torn is how I would describe myself. I came out a little aggressive. I do think everybody should have a livable wage. But I also believe in basic economic principles, so I struggle with finding the balance between paying someone more because they need it, despite the fact that the market would not dictate a wage close…

I don’t want to pull this card, but I have a graduate degree in economics (which is why HamNo usually keeps me in the greys), so I’ve probably already read up on it. And sorry, but as another commentor put it, when you’re job can be done by a 14 year old with 2 hours of training, and the culmination of all the skills…

It should be of zero concern to the employer what their employees can or can not afford to do with the money they are paid. The employee/employer relationship is a simple one that has one side paying the other side for a task to be completed. Again, these are employees NOT dependents. If the employee can’t live on…

And the number of Harvard students who decline to matriculate because the dining hall workers are getting $30K instead of $35K is...

What one can afford is totally irrelevant to the issue. I can afford to pay the guy that sells hot dogs outside my office 20 bucks a hot dog but he can go fuck himself with those hot dogs if he thinks I’m going to. The value of a task isn’t tied to how much somebody can afford. The only thing that should matter is if…

Setting aside for a moment the wage issue and its merits, when you say they will lose the PR battle here, what exactly do you think is going to happen that will make Harvard feel as though it has lost anything? Do you envision fewer and less qualified applicants? Or perhaps less success in fundraising? Perhaps you…

I don’t think people care about the dining hall workers nearly as much as HamNo thinks they do, but we’ll see. Cambridge is limousine liberal central (other than Manhattan, I guess).

The argument isn’t with the $35,000 (although a living wage is probably closer to $30K than it is to $35K). It’s with the fact that the union wants year-round dining hall work to be made available, even in the summers. Living wage is reasonable, but you can’t ask the university to employ people beyond their need for…

Look, I knew this would be an unpopular opinion on here. Harvard is neither the government, nor the workers’ daddy. It is not Harvard’s responsibility to care for the workers when they do not have any work for them to perform. That’s not employment, that’s charity. I live in a cold weather state, I wouldn’t get a job…

Calling it now, the first guy across the picket line is Ryan Fitzpatrick

Dude not everyone who goes to Harvard is a trust fund baby or is unfamiliar with working class living: See: Barack Obama

Aren’t all these workers math savants from Southie?

No, everyone does NOT deserve a “living wage” get the fuck out of here with that nonsense. When you hire someone to do a job you are paying for a task to be performed not taking on a dependent. If the person doesn’t like the pay being offered they are free to tell you to go pound sand.

I went to Harvard. I grew up in a large family (more than 10 siblings). When I was a student at Harvard, I cleaned other students’ bathrooms as part of my work-study. I can assure that before, during, and after my college years, I was quite familiar with the concept of serving others. Please don’t generalize.

I came here prepared to find yet another obnoxious communist rant from the man with the lacrossiest name ever, but I must say your take here is unassailable. Looking at this from the vantage points of PR and “omfg imagine serving Harvard kids for a living” is highly effective. I now support giving these workers double…

Unfortunately for the workers, Harvard can simply switch over to a program that hires students to work in the dining hall, with their pay going towards their tuition. Many colleges across the US do this. Which means that a guy like Tommy from Charlestown, who prepares the fresh fruit, is easily replaced by a student…