Health Services Suspends Stillman Infirmary Cook

The management of University Health Services (UHS) Friday temporarily suspended H. Melvin Peoples, a UHS kitchen worker, a month after Peoples filed a grievance charging UHS with harassment.

Peoples said yesterday UHS suspended him because he reported labor abuses by Harvard management to The Crimson and because he is active in the dining hall workers union, Local 26.

Not What You Think

Josephus Long, assistant director for administration and finance at UHS, said yesterday his request that Peoples not return to work until further notice is not a suspension.

"I'm just temporarily not having him come in until I can determine some events that occurred last week," Long said, adding that he is concerned the Peoples' performance in the UHS kitchen might endanger the health of patients in the UHS infirmary.

Long and Donna N. Hill, UHS dietician, sent three warning slips to Peoples last month. They said that he changed the infirmary menu without orders to do so and that he left the UHS kitchen dirty.

No Negotiates

Peoples filed a grievance against the UHS management a month ago, charging it with harassment and attempts to remove him from his job before he becomes active in contract negotiations between Harvard and Local 26 in April, 1980. Peoples will retire in February.

When Peoples filed the grievance, Edward B. Childs, chief steward in Adams House dining hall, said that the UHS management complaints against Peoples were insignificant and that he believed they resulted from Peoples' labor activity. Childs was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Peoples charges against UHS management are "ridiculous," Edward W. Powers, associate general counsel for employee relations, said yesterday. As chief negotiator for Harvard, Powers added he has no reason to remove Peoples from his job three months before his scheduled retirement.

Powers said that he would not order. Peoples to avoid publicizing labor news, adding he has told union officials that he doesn't like conversations with him reported to the press.

Long, Peoples and Powers will meet with representatives of Local 26 next week to discuss the case.