Security Guards, University Continue Contract Dispute

In the latest salvo in an ongoing dispute between Harvard's security guards and the University, guards this week charge that they had been left out of community policing policies, burdened by overtime and left in limbo in contract negotiations.

Several Harvard guards say they are outraged at the statements made by Harvard University Police (HUPD) Chief Francis D. "Bud" Riley and other university officials about the history of their unit and current contract negotiations.

In particular, two top guards, Stephen G. McCombe, the union president, and Howard Reid, a former union steward, question Riley's account of his attempts to integrate guards into community policing.

And McCombe says comments by Riley and other Harvard administrators about the per-house cost it takes to employ the security guards are false.

In a February interview, Riley said he encountered resistance from the guard union when he tried to start his community policing program.

Community policing is an initiative championed by Riley that attempts to place officers more directly in contact with students and House communities.

But McCombe, who was union president at the time, says he offered no resistance to guards' inclusion in the program.

And Reid, who was one of the five guards who began to take community policing classes in 1996, says the guards' inclusion "was only an afterthought."

"They said they only had room for five guards" out 57 total employed by Harvard, he says. "I mean, to say that the guards balked, it's totally false."

Reid says that, at the time, he received calls from other guards asking him why he had been chosen over them for inclusion in the community policing program.

Reid recalls saying to the questioners, "I don't know."

In response, Riley says that all guards--not just the five Reid says were chosen for training--received a one-day orientation to community policing, and that he invited all the guards to join the program.

"The people were not chosen, they volunteered," he said.

A Living Wage?

McCombe, who had earlier declined comment on this issue, citing union confidentiality, said the statements of administration officials about the cost it takes to employ the guards were not accurate.

The University bills the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) around $26 per guard per hour, according to those administrators.

But McCombe and Randall A. Nash, an attorney for the guards, said this figure is far higher than the one which has been accepted as fact in the guards' ongoing negotiations with the University.

"The fee for service is $19.50 per guard," McCombe said. "The $26 figure is for police officers."

But one University official close to the negotiations says a higher number is more accurate, putting the actual cost per guard around $24.50 per hour.

About 92 percent of that fee accounts for wages, fringe benefits, vacation pay, holiday pay, sick pay and overtime, the source said. The remaining 8 percent goes towards administrative costs: equipment, office maintenance and pay to supervising HUPD officers.

The approximately $4.50 to $6.50 difference in the figures given by separate University sources and by the guards union is important to both because an explosion of private security companies offer the same services for half the cost.

And since the labor market is tight and wages nationwide have stagnated for the security industry, Harvard guards say they worry about the quality of out-sourced guards.

McCombe says he even worries about the guard personnel willing to work for a Harvard guard's beginning wage-"In today's economy, who's going to work for $8.22 an hour?"

An out-sourced guard would likely be paid as much or less money per hour.

Neither the guard officials, Nash, or University officials were able to explain the disparity in the accounts of guards' fees for service that each has publicized.

Working Overtime

McCombe this week said in addition to problems with money, the University is stretching its short-handed guard force with increased overtime duty.

And a guard work schedule showing the number of overtime shifts available supports this contention.

In the 25 days from March 25 to April 18 of 1998, guards worked 166 shifts of overtime, the document shows.

On weekends, the problem was most acute.

On Saturday, April 17, guards worked 62 hours of overtime, the document shows. The next day, guards worked more than 71 hours of overtime.

"I've got guys working 40 hours straight," McCombe says.

Reid says that he has worked for more than 30 hours at a time before.

"If Harvard seems so concerned with dollars and cents, then why don't they hire new guards?" McCombe said.

Contract talks between the union, which also represents the University's parking guards and Fogg museum guards, stalled last month.

Union negotiators accuse the University of not offering any valid counter-proposals, and the University has accused the guard union of waging their campaign in the press.

Other University officials say that the option of hiring a less expensive security agency is hampering the guard's efforts at securing a new contract.

Nash says another meeting has been scheduled, but he declined to say when.

"I'm hopeful that an agreement with them can be reached," he says. "I don't know if I can go so far as to say that I'm confident."