Police, Service Employees, Dining Workers Will Also Meet With University to Forge New Contracts

In the coming academic year, several Harvard unions--in addition to the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW)--will conduct contract negotiations, raising some unique issues about the University workplace.

Local 877 of the International Union of Operating Engineers represents about 260 Harvard employees. Allen R. McWade, who works for the Local 877, says a contract for about 70 employees will run out in a few months.

His concerns, though, center around the practice of subcontracting work out to non-union employees.

"There are more people doing subcontracting work on a daily basis than we have members on the property, and it's getting worse," McWade says.

In an effort to ease union worker concerns, Local 877 negotiated a job guarantee for the term of one of its Harvard contracts, which runs out in December 1993, so there will be no layoffs. But that doesn't resolve the long-term problem, McWade says, and he plans to take action if the University doesn't respond to the concerns his union has already raised.

"We are moving towards doing something to stop them or to draw attention to subcontracting," McWade says. He says his union will fix the problem if Harvard does not.

Graphics Communications

Harold W. Hirtle, of the Graphics Communications International Union, is the shop steward for 54 employees of the University Printing Office. Their contract expires the first week of November, and the union has already submitted its proposal to Harvard, with negotiations set to begin October 9, Hirtle says.

His union is in the unique position of having made concessions in past contracts that left workers with no pay raises and some givebacks. Several years ago, Hirtle says, there was some question about whether the printing office was making a profit.

Now, it is generating a profit, Hirtle says, and he expects the University to respond with a better deal han in years past.

"In a year like this, it's time that maybe some good-faith bargaining came into play," says Hirtle, who is seeking a one-year contract.

Police

The Harvard University Police Association represents about 40 police officers. Its three-year contract expires next July, according to union president Richard W. Mederos. The police union is the only Harvard union not associated with a national organization, Mederos says.

Local 254 of the Service Employees International Union represents about 700 custodians, security guards, parking attendants and museum attendants. Its contract with Harvard expires in November of 1992.

"Wages were the big issue" in the last contract, says Francis E. Fanning, the union's business agent.

Workers received pay raises of 5 percent for each year of the contract, a deal very similar to that of Harvard's other unions.

Local 26 represents Harvard's dining hall employees, a union with a bargaining unit of more than 600. Their three-year contract expires next June. According to Barbara Rice, who works for Local 26, the union's relationship with the University is smoother now than it was in the past.

"We've always fought the University. We've had a lot of real battles with them," Rice says. "A couple years ago, that stabilized."

Other unions at Harvard include Local 103 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the union of plumbers.