Law School Secretaries Explore Possibility of Forming a Union

Law School secretaries will meet with a representative of the Professional Employees Union (AFL-CIO) at 1 p.m. today to explore the possibility of forming a union.

Today's meeting was called by the policy committee of the Harvard Law School Secretaries Association-an organization of more than 40 of the Law School's approximately 50 secretaries.

The association, which is the only organized group of secretaries in the University, has been actively raising questions about salary scales and job classifications since it was first formed last Fall.

The six-member policy committee of the association invited John O'Malley of the Professional Employees Union to speak today about his union and to explain the advantages and disadvantages of forming a union at the law School. A member of the policy committee stressed yesterday that the meeting was designed only to provide information for the secretaries.

Two Law School professors-Vern Countryman, professor of Law, and David L. Shapiro '54, professor of Law-advised a member of the policy committee on what unions to contact.

The idea of transforming an admittedly informal association into a union is only the latest development of a year-long examination of salaries and job classifications by both the secretaries and the Law School administration.

Over a year ago, Derek C. Bok, dean of the Law School, sent a letter to each secretary asking for suggestions and complaints about salaries.

Bok, whose field is labor relations, said yesterday that he felt "a sense of unease" about the wage scale. "It seemed that it was a poorly formulated and not very clearly understood system," he said.

Bok announced a new standard starting salary and also asked the University Office of Personnel to evaluate the jobs of the secretaries and suggest a rational pay scale.

In the Fall, however, the secretaries-who had formed an association to protest specific working conditions-challenged the new salary scale and conducted a poll to prove that there were "great inequities" in the system. In particular, they pointed to examplesof new secretaries who were receiving higher salaries than older ones.

After a meeting with Bok in which they voiced their complaints. the Law School administration announced the new salary ranges and job classifications which had been drawn up by the University Personnel Office.

Edward W. Powers, Labor Relations Manager and Assistant Director of Personnel, said that the Personnel Office's salary ranges and job classifications represented part of "the continuing work" of his staff.

According to Powers, the University had not updated its salary ranges for the past two years because it had lacked a salary manager. This Fall it hired a new salary manager who has been working on a University-wide system of job classifications and salary ranges.

The policy committee of the association claimed that the new ranges were announced without the consultation which had been promised. They also said that their efforts to gain information about the new system had been unsuccessful-even in a large mass meeting with Powers and Robert S. Giroux. manager of salary and wage administration. "They Eave us semi-answers," one secretary said.

The Personnel Office's salary ranges have been sent to all the schools in the University, but the Law School is the first to implement them. Powers said that there is an analyst working at the Law School now, evaluating jobs and salaries.

Since that meeting, the policy committee has felt it is dealing with the Personnel Office more than the Law School administration. "Dean Bok has been most cooperative," one said. "Our fight is with Holyoke (the Personnel Office)."

No Question

But Bok said yesterday that the final authority over the Law School employees has never been a question. "The Personnel Office provides a source of expertise in setting up these plans, a source of expertise that we cannot match."

"In one sense, we deal with the secretaries most directly. and in the most obvious sense, are the employer. On the other hand, in the questions of wage scale. transfer policy, personnel policy, there are very strong University, wide implications." he said.

Asked if he disliked the prospect of a union in the Law School, Bok said, "I don't teach labor law for nothing. I'm not afraid of unions."