Five More Join The Strike

Five new faces joined the month-old printers' strike against the University this week, demanding even higher wage increases than those sought by the 31 printers who have been on strike since April 9.

All but one of the typesetters for the Typing and Copy Center voted to strike after their April 24 vote to join the striking Local 300 of the Graphic Arts International Union (GAIU) was certified by the National Labor Relations Board on May 2.

The printers from locals 300 and 16 are striking for a wage hike of at least 5.9 per cent plus a $10 per week across-the-board increase.

The typesetters' demands are "above and beyond the demands of the printers," Paul Golden, vice president of Local 300, said this week. Neither Golden nor the typesetters would disclose the exact increase being sought by the copy center employees.

The Typing and Copy typesetters usually do the composition work for the Harvard University Gazette and other University departments.

The Gazette was typeset this week by the office's management personnel.

The GAIU has not directed its Local 300 members at Harwich Lithographers, the company that prints the Gazette, to stop printing the paper during the strike, but the GAIU insignia that normally appears on the back page was removed from today's edition.

The striking printers took their demands to some of the University's major sources of funds last Friday, picketing a Faculty Club gathering for Harvard Alumni who have donated between $1000 and $5000 in a non-reunion year.

About 80 printers and sympathetic students marched in the rain, chanting slogans like, "Tuition up, wages down, Harvard profits all around."

Union spokesmen also claimed this week that about 60 per cent of the delivery trucks coming to Harvard are now honoring the printers' picket lines.

On Monday morning, 14 printers and four students formed a picket line across the Boylston St. driveway to the Business School, preventing delivery trucks from entering and backing up traffic on Boylston St.

Police ordered the picketers to allow the trucks to pass about half an hour later, but few delivery trucks entered.

The Union attributes the increasing percentage of non-deliveries to recognition of the strike by the Teamsters Union, increased awareness by non-union drivers and more effective picketing tactics.

John B. Butler, director of personnel and the University's sole spokesman on the strike, continued this week to remain, for the most part, silent on the negotiations or Harvard's alternative printing plans.

More information may be forthcoming: President Bok said at a press conference yesterday that although he had made it clear the University should only have one spokesman on the strike, he had not intended that to mean that no information about the strike would be provided. Some things probably will not be disclosed.

The strike goes on, and Harvard still will not tip its hand about its contingency plans for printing up exams and commencement material if it does not end soon. That's not to say Mother Harvard does not have something up her sleeve.