Penn Strikers Return to Work, Reach Compromise Settlement

The strike that kept the University of Pennsylvania's dining halls and libraries closed for a month and restricted dormitory maintenance to emergency repairs for six weeks ended yesterday, as the last 250 striking workers returned to their posts.

The machinists and maintenance workers, who were still on strike last week, ratified a compromise contract last Wednesday. The 350 dining hall workers, librarians, and animal lab technicians ratified new contracts earlier in the strike, and returned to work two weeks ago.

Charles King, president of the maintenance workers' union, said yesterday his union is not satisfied with the new contract. But, he said, "We couldn't stay out alone."

Students at Penn were generally apathetic to the strikers' demands for wage increases, paying little attention to picket lines and support rallies throughout the strike.

Eighty-six windows and glass doors were smashed during the strike, allegedly by two union members. Several shots were fired one night two weeks ago into the office of George Budd, Penn's director of labor relations, and the faculty club was flooded that weekend.

Spokesmen for the Penn security force have said it believes these incidents were all strike-related.

Budd yesterday called the compromise contract--reached after a nine-hour meeting with a federal mediator--"the best solution for a bad situation."

The new contract gives members of the machinists' and maintenance workers' unions a 6 per cent raise January 1, another 6 per cent raise July 1, and a 2 per cent raise on January 1, 1977. The contract terminates August 1, 1977.

The machinists' union originally demanded an immediate 12 per cent wage increase, and the maintenance workers' union asked for an 18 per cent increase over the next fiscal year.

"We knew we would never get it," King said.

The three campus unions that returned to work earlier accepted contracts that give their members 6 per cent raises on the next two anniversaries of the signing of the contract, which means they do not get the last 2 per cent raise accorded the maintenance workers and machinists. Their contracts end a month earlier than do those of the two unions that returned to work yesterday.

Budd said Penn wants to ensure equal contracts for all its workers, and has offered the other unions the option of accepting the same contracts as the machinists and maintenance workers.

The leaders of the machinists' union were not available for comment yesterday. A spokesman for the union, who declined to give her name, said yesterday, "They're taking a little vacation.