Stephen Colbert, who supported striking Hollywood writers in 2023, was criticized Thursday for appearing with cellist Yo-Yo Ma at Harvard while graduate student workers were on strike. The event ended early after a fire alarm sounded.
The Harvard Graduate Students Union, on strike since Oct. 27, had asked Colbert and Ma to cancel, postpone or move the appearance in support of workers seeking higher pay and stronger workplace protections. The union said it contacted the performers and their labor organizations beforehand, but the event went ahead.
The alarm sounded about 40 minutes into the sold-out discussion at Sanders Theatre. Colbert, Ma and audience members evacuated, and the 90-minute event did not resume.
Around 50 union members demonstrated outside the theater before and during the event, using drums and air horns and chanting for better pay and working conditions. The cause of the alarm is unknown. The union said it was unrelated to the picketing and that it had no information about what caused it. Members were relieved, it added, that nobody inside appeared to be in danger.
The union is seeking annual salaries of $55,000 for research assistants and about $45,000 for teaching fellows on 10-month appointments. Its demands also include yearly raises of 3% or cost-of-living adjustments, an independent process for handling harassment and discrimination complaints, and legal assistance in Title IX cases.
Other proposals include financial support for workers who need to leave unsafe lab environments, safeguards for sensitive immigration documents and leave for visa delays or immigration emergencies. The union also wants Harvard to notify it if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents come to campus and to require a judicial warrant before cooperating with the agency.
In its appeal to Colbert, the union pointed to his support for the Writers Guild of America strike in 2023, when he joined Hollywood workers on a picket line. The union said it had repeatedly asked both performers not to cross its picket line, including through SAG-AFTRA and the Boston Musicians’ Association.
“They continued the event inside without regard for the picket line, and refused to speak with union members as they left the event,” the union said in a statement. “In other words — they crossed our picket line.”
Author John Green took a different approach, moving a scheduled Harvard appearance online so he would not cross the graduate students’ picket line. In a video shared by the union, Green said the decision was easy for him. He also donated the event’s proceeds to the union, according to The Boston Globe.
