More Harvard Union Busting

To the Editors of The Crimson

As as former Harvard clerical worker and union organizer for Harvard Employees Acting Together (H.E.A.T). I feel compelled to point out that yesterday's National Labor Relations Board ruling demonstrates again just how wholeheartedly Harvard University has committed itself to union-busting and unfair labor practices.

It should be obvious to all but the reactionary Reagan Board that Harvard consolidated personnel operations at the Medical Campus and Holyoke Center for the sole purpose of destroying the union organizing effort. The University realized that the union did not have the resources to organize the Main Campus at the same time as the Medical Area, and that merely by shifting certain personnel operations of the Medical Area to Holyoke Center it could secure a Board ruling requiring a university-wide election, thus thwarting any successful organizing drive.

This is not the only occasion on which Harvard has engaged in union-busting activities; rather, it is but one example of a comprehensive program to prevent workers from exercising their collective bargaining rights. Harvard retains management consultants who specialize in union-busting. Harvard has threatened to discharge workers who distribute union literature during office-wide coffee breaks. The University's private police force even threatened to arrest pickets during this summer's food service worker's strike.

Sometimes this program is defended by the paternalistic belief, articulated recently in The Crimson by General Counsel Daniel Steiner, that there is "no particular advantage to...the people who work here by having a union represent staff at Harvard. Union-busting has also been justified on grounds of economic necessity: Harvard counsel Ed Powers said in the April 7, 1983. Independent as saying "I'm not saying that (the food service workers) have a good life. I could not raise a family on what they're making. But you have to question priorities."

Whether Harvard's union-busting tactics are based on misguided paternalism or outright contempt for workers' fights, it is high time that students in this University take a stand and object to use of their tuition dollars to subsidize the University's unfair labor practices. Michael Dinnerstein   Harvard College '82   Harvard Clerical Worker '82-'83   Harvard Law School '86