Cornell Service Workers Continue Strike

Service and maintenance workers at Cornell University continue to work without a wage settlement after the university rejected the union's first concession during negotiations on Thursday.

Bargainers for the United Auto Workers (UAW) lowered their demand for a 16 percent increase in the total wage pool to 13 percent, but Cornell administrators are willing to give only an 8 percent increase, said David I. Stewart, assistant to the vice president for university relations.

In total, the difference between the amount the union is demanding and the amount the university will pay amounts to approximately $1.5 million.

Thursday's negotiations came on the heels of a strike by more than 80 of the approximately 120 dining hall workers during last week's Parents' Weekend.

During the strike, Cornell President Frank T. Rhodes said although Cornell service and maintenance workers may be underpaid, the university is paying them as much as it can afford.

UAW President Al Davidoff said the average starting pay for Cornell service and maintenance workers is $4.66 an hour. Davidoff said the administration has "acknowledged that the problem exists but the sensitivity to acknowledge is not the will to do something about it."

During Parents' Weekend, union workers picketed and distributed union pamphlets in an effort to gain the support of parents. Union members said parents contributed about $500 to their cause.

Although the university was forced to shut down eight of its 12 dining halls, university officials said that Parents' Weekend activities were not substantially affected by the strike.

"There was a certain amount of disturbance, but it didn't interrupt [the scheduled activities]" said E. Peter Tufford, manager of employee relations at Cornell.

But not everyone agreed. "I think Cornell was really embarassed," said Victoria L. Lessin, a senior active in Cornell's Worker Student Alliance.

Davidoff said statistics show that more than 200 Cornell workers receive salaries below the federal poverty level. He added that there is a wage gap of between $4000 and $8000 between the salaries of service and maintenance workers at Cornell and those of workers at such schools as Harvard, Columbia, and the state universities of New York.

But university officials disagree with both UAW's assessment of Cornell's funds and its comparisons with worker payments at other schools. "The union has been using numbers that don't match up with anything," Stewart said, adding that the union compared figures from Cornell's 1986 payments to SUNY's 1987 wages.

Some faculty members have been rallying in support of the workers, said Walter I. Cohen, professor of comparative literature and the unofficial leader of the faculty movement to support the union. Cohen said faculty members are working to circulate a petition supporting UAW's demands, and are also trying to raise money to help support striking workers.

"What struck me most is that there was broad support from all areas of campus," said Nick Salvatore, an American history professor involved in the faculty movement. "A lot of faculty who may not have been politically active in the last 10 years feel it's worth writing letters" in support of the union, he said.

But university officials don't think the workers have widespread support. "Some people [in the community] are supporting them, but those are people who don't necessarily know all the facts," Stewart said.

Union actions are scheduled for homecoming weekend, and a rally is planned for tomorrow's Cornell-Colgate football game, Davidoff said.