Crimson office is occupied

The CRIMSON was occupied last night by a scruffy bunch of Nieman Fellows while the CRIMSONS were out dining and toasting themselves at their Inaugural Banquet at the Signet Society.

The Niemans, mostly over 30, indicated the occupation would be temporary-until the press rolled.

Two reports were circulating on the cause of the sit-in. According to organizer of the demonstration, Larry L. King, Harper's '67 and Texas Tech '49, the Niemans were invited to occupy the building so the CRIMSON could swill away some of their advertising profits unbuttered by news responsibilities. Others, however, hinted that the Niemans were there in protest to some of the CRIMSON's business practices.

It was discovered prior to the banquet that the CRIMSON has been paying its printers and printers helpers below Boston union wages. The CRIMSON is a open shop newspaper. The CRIMSON also does not employ any blacks in its six-man bakeshop.

The new CRIMSON wage rate, which went into effect this week and goes as high as $4.50/hr., is still below the Boston union daytime rates which start at $4.65/hr. for pressmen and $4.86/hr. for compositors, plus night differentials.

Boston union wages are in the process of being raised in a contract to be settled this year. John Giuggio, business manager of the Boston Globe said the new union scale "will jump appreciably" over the rates listed above.

The CRIMSON's new business manager, A. H. Moss '71. said that the CRIMSON paid below Boston union wages but gave its workers better pay than other Boston small newspapers and also generously financed 13 paid holidays in addition to regular vacations.

Moss said that the CRIMSON had tried several times to hire blacks for its bakeshop but had been unsuccessful in finding applicants. He admitted that there was no CRIMSON program designed specifically to hire blacks or other minority groups for skilled press jobs.

"What can you expect?" asked Moss. "We're only a student publication running on a marginal profit."