Med Area Union Asks NLRB For Right to Hold an Election

The Medical Area Employees Organizing Committee yesterday petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for permission to hold a union election.

The organizing committee, which affiliated itself with District 65 of the Distributive Workers of America last spring, submitted union membership cards to the Boston office of the NLRB, signed by "more than 50 per cent" of the 800 Medical Area employees, according to District 65's Medical Area organizer Leslie Sullivan.

The NLRB requires that 30 per cent of all employees sign membership cards.

Clerical and Technical Workers

District 65 seeks to represent clerical and technical personnel in the Medical Area, which includes the Medical School, the Dental School, the School of Public Health, and Countway Library.

Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, said yesterday the University "still maintains that the Medical Area is an inappropriate bargaining unit."

Steiner said in a memorandum to all Medical Area personnel on February 5 that the only appropriate bargaining unit for clerical and technical workers employed by Harvard would be University wide.

He said yesterday. "The first step will be to arrange a meeting between the University, the union, and NLRB representatives, at which time we can make plans to proceed to a hearing."

Harvard Will Contest

The NLRB will hold hearings to determine if the Medical Area is an appropriate bargaining unit, when the University contests the organizing committee's petition to hold an election.

Steiner said the University had not been notified by the NLRB that the organizing committee had filed its petition. After official notification is received, he said, Harvard will formally state its opposition to formation of a Medical Area union.

Sullivan said last Thursday that the hearings would probably take several weeks.