Library Staffs to Consider Association To Settle Contracts with Administration

The Harvard College Library (HCL) Staff Committee has proposed the formation of a Staff Association to negotiate with the Harvard Administration on improvements in wages and working conditions.

In an interview published by the "Iceberg," and HCL publication, Janet Jones a member of the committee, said:

"Only united will we have the power to win higher salaries, improved medical care, a child-care center-collective power or no power is the choice."

The nine-member Staff Committee is elected by the staffs of Widener, Lamont, Houghton, and the Fine Arts libraries.

Members decided they would remain powerless to produce any improvements unless they formed an organization "legally recognized" by the Administration.

To allow library employees to air their opinions and to answer any legal questions about the new association, the committee plans a meeting next Wednesday during lunch hours.

Richard S. Saul, professor of Political Science at Boston University, will be present to explain the many legal problems which will arise should the staff decide to go ahead with an association.

Definite Possibility

Saul, who has been advising the B. U. librarians on their successful organizing efforts, said there was a "definite possibility" of forming an association legally recognized by the National Labor Relations Board.

This Board first assumed jurisdiction over formation of unions within large universities last spring after it refused to recognize a group of Cornell librarians on the grounds that it did not represent all office and clerical workers within the university.

Saul admits that there could possibly be a similar "hassle" about granting legal status to a bargaining unit limited to Harvard librarians.

Many library employees have expressed reluctance to exert pressure on Harvard by forming such an association.

Some voiced concern about losing current benefits and about being considered in the same category as "nonprofessionals."

One employee at Widener even said, "I have no right to exert pressure on Harvard."

Toby Plevin, representing Lamont on the committee, responded, "Although we can't compare ourselves to the starving grape-workers, we do have the right to a sense of contributing to factors relating to our employment."