Harvard reached an agreement with its graduate students this afternoon and will now allow eligible graduate students to vote in a union election on November 16th and 17th. The graduate students are hoping to unionize under the United Auto Workers Union and submitted a formal election petition to the NLRB today. Graduate and undergraduate teaching fellows, course, teaching, and research assistants will be included in the bargaining unit; however, undergraduate research assistants will be excluded. After a landmark decision this summer, private universities, including Harvard, were mandated by the NLRB to recognize student assistant unions.
See "Harvard and Grad Student Union Effort Reach Formal Agreement", Leah S. Yared, The Crimson, October 18, 2016