Black Workers, SDS, Confront Heads of Personnel Department

Electrician's apprentice Charles McNeil and two other black University employees charged yesterday that Harvard reneged on their promised pay increases. The charges were made during an angry Holyoke Center confrontation involving 70 members of SDS and two officers of the personnel department.

McNeil, leading the questioning for nearly half of the 90-minute encounter, demanded that labor relations director Richard W. Coleman explain why the three other electrician's apprentices-all white-had received automatic raises while he did not, and why he had been transferred into a "racist" remedial math course.

'Bulbs and Ballast'

"White fellows who have the same experience are slotted on Mr. McNeil's level," Coleman said. "Most of the experience that he'd had was in changing light-bulbs and ballast."

Bernard Bowie, a licensed electrician who had worked with McNeil for six months, disagreed with Coleman. "He [McNeil] frequently hung fixtures, bent and cut piping, pulled wiring, and helped repair motors," Bowie said. "He did everything an apprentice electrician does."

More Complaints

Arriving midway through the exchange, two black employees of the Afro-American Studies Department charged that the University had lied to them about pay increases. Madelyn Payne, who said she had been hired as an administrative assistant but was receiving secretary's pay, told Coleman, "I was told that at the end of three months I would receive a $25 raise. I got four dollars."

Joyce Holland, another employee of the Afro-American Department, voiced a similar complaint. She said she was given, in writing, the University's promise for a pay increase-but claimed that a personnel officer had told her that she would be "asked to resign or be fired" if she attempted to "make a fuss about it."

Edward W. Powers, associate director of personnel, said that the two had been hired as secretaries and that "there is no position such as an administrative assistant in the Department for Afro-American Studies-there is no money for it." He added that he would investigate the problem.

Coleman told the group that McNeil's transfer to a union-run remedial math course, taught by an instructor McNeil termed "racist", was temporary. The personnel department is in the process of meeting with the Ed School to get a "better" course for all apprentices, he said.

Outcome Delayed

The confrontation ended as Coleman told the group that a decision on McNeil's pay increase would be made at the next meeting of the Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee. He said he would be willing to talk to McNeil and Bowie again Friday.