With a soaring endowment, why is everyone on strike? At Harvard, three unions could walk out at once.

More than 7,000 Harvard workers are already on strike or threatening to walk off the job as the university tightens its finances amid financial uncertainty and political turmoil, according to the Boston Globe. The graduate student union launched its strike on a Tuesday, its second action of the year. Researchers and non-tenure-track teachers have set a deadline of Nov. 10, and dining workers could strike at any time. Evan Lemire, vice president of the graduate student union, warned that if Harvard's administration cannot treat workers fairly, "it will have a triple strike action on its hands." A simultaneous strike would likely disrupt food service, classroom instruction, and research, and would cost the university money to hire replacements. Harvard says it is committed to negotiating with all three unions and considers striking unwarranted.

Union leaders point to Harvard's nearly $68 billion endowment, which rose $11 billion in the last fiscal year, as evidence of capacity to raise wages. The Globe reports that the reality is more complicated: endowment rules restrict how funds can be spent, and more than 80 percent of endowment distributions are restricted to specific purposes. Endowment investment income, which varies with the stock market, is now subject to a federal excise tax that rose six-fold at Harvard to 8 percent this fiscal year. Economists say uncertainty over Trump administration moves to cut research funding, limit student visas, and raise taxes on higher education has made colleges more cautious. Harvard's recent financial overview showed a $104 million savings in salaries and wages from a hiring freeze and restructuring, producing a $100 million operating surplus. Its CFO and treasurer wrote, "We would like to tell you that the uncertainty of the past two years is behind us. It is not."

Dining workers represented by Unite Here Local 26, which includes 600 Harvard employees, say their wages now trail those at Lesley University, Northeastern University, and MIT, the last by $5 an hour, according to union president Carlos Aramayo. Academic union members are focused on child-care costs, with some paying more than $20,000 a year on a $75,000 salary. Union members also seek stronger protections for non-citizens, citing concern about ICE access to campus; current policy requires ICE to check with Harvard police and hold a valid warrant. The Globe also notes that the labor movement is particularly active in Greater Boston, where MIT workers and others are also poised to strike.

Harvard's managing director for dining services, Smitha Haneef, said in a June letter that the university pays seasonal workers a summer stipend, while union representatives say workers at neighboring schools can file for unemployment in the summer and Harvard workers cannot.