Forum Discusses Working Conditions

Employees from across the University gathered last night to discuss working conditions at Harvard with colleagues and community members—including the Katz Committee, a University task force that is charged with advising President Lawrence H. Summers on labor issues.

The event was sponsored by the Harvard Workers’ Center, a legal resource center affiliated with the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM).

Speaking in English and Spanish to a full Science Center E lecture hall, workers came up to the microphone to talk about their jobs.

Students also provided translations for several workers in Haitian Creole and Portuguese via headset.

Although union representatives said that the workers present had obtained permission to attend the forum, most workers chose to be only identified by their first names.

The issues raised included many of the same ones for which PSLM sat in at Mass. Hall last spring—mainly wages, health insurance, personal days, overtime hours, temporary workers and outsourcing.

“The things that I’ve seen in the last 20 years sometimes makes me ashamed to work here,” said Bob, a worker wearing a Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences shirt who said he had not had his salary raised from its current rate of $11.25 per hour since 1993.

The meeting featured custodians and other members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 254, and a smaller turnout of members from the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 26, which represents many dining hall workers.

Aclerical worker who identified himself as Jeff spoke about the “crisis of high housing costs” and said that HUCTW, with their lowest workers paid at a rate of $10.80 per hour, have common interests with the other Harvard unions.

Larry Williams, a co-chief shop steward for HERE Local 26, echoed the message of common interest.

“We have to rally to support our brothers and sisters who are not making [above $10.68 per hour],” he said.

Several workers also expressed dissatisfaction with their treatment by supervisors.

“To be honest, there is unsafe management,” said Harold, who identified himself as a non-unionized dining hall worker.

Today, PSLM is sponsoring a workshop called “The Bottom Line,” which will bring four professors from University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Center for Popular Economics to discuss living wage issues.

The event, which is not open to the public, will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. in Boylston Hall.

—Staff writer Ross A. Macdonald can be reached at jrmacdon@fas.harvard.edu.