Portside

The settlement may well resonate beyond the gates of Harvard Yard. It marks the fourth time in recent months that a union has bucked a long and steady decline in the clout of organized labor groups. The show of strength for organized labor comes at a time when just 11.1 percent of the US workforce is unionized. Some labor specialists say changing economic conditions are giving unions newfound leverage, despite their relatively modest ranks.

Food service workers at Harvard are members of UNITE-HERE Local 26. After two years, they earn $21.73 per hour on average, while for many years the DoubleTree hotel in Cambridge owned by the university non-union housekeepers earned only about $15 an hour. Last year, housekeepers at the hotel mounted a push to join Local 26 as well. Hilton, which owns the DoubleTree chain bumped salaries to $18 an hour— but has so far managed to avoid a unionized workforce.