Labor leaders from six foreign countries, together with eight representatives from American trade unions, last week completed an intensive 13-week course at the University under the Trade Union Program--a unique academic experiment in administrative training designed to help labor officials meet their responsibilities as executives.

This fall's session was highlighted by the largest attendance of European union men in the ten-year history of the Program. Six officials from Austria. England, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway came to Harvard under the auspices of a special scholarship plan set up by the Economic Cooperation Administration. Only two men from abroad had enrolled in the course over the previous nine years.

As a result, the 1951 course was arranged with special emphasis on the international aspects of union problems, and one of the eleven courses taken by the Trade Union Fellows was designed primarily to acquaint them with the history of the labor movement in other countries.

E.C.A. officials are reportedly very satisfied with the training received by the European students, and plan to send another group of men to Harvard in February for the first spring session in the history of the program.

Although the University has long offered training on the executive level for business administration and Civil Service work, the idea of a Trade Union Program did not receive particular attention here until 1941. Some of the ground work for the program had already been laid, however, through a series of weekend labor-management seminars on industrial labor relations sponsored for several years by Lamont University Professor Sumner H. Slichter.

Birth of Program

After a series of talks in the fall of 1941 between University officials and labor leaders from all parts of the country, President Conant, in January 1942, approved a committee report calling for the establishment of a nine-month training program to be given annually in the field of union administration.

The period of duration was later shortened to 13 weeks since many officials cannot be spared from their union duties for a full academic year. The present plan nevertheless covers most of the work included in the longer version.

The Trade Union Program is jointly sponsored by the Business School, the Department of Economics, and the School of Public Administration. The tuition fee of $400 for the session is paid by the trade union which sends the students, or, in the case of foreign labor leaders, by national congresses of the sponsoring organization.

Some unions also pay fixed allowances for basic expenses to their representatives at the University, and others have continued to give their members their regular salary and expense allowance while at Harvard.

Four-Man Rule

The administration of the program is in the hands of four faculty members--John T. Dunlop, James J. Healy, Benjamin M. Selekman, and Slichter, who chairs the executive committee. Healy is in charge of the actual operation of the program.

The teaching staff for the sessions usually consists of a mixed group of University instructors and professional experts from various fields. This year's roster included Slichter, who conducted a seminar on collective bargaining, and Clinton S. Golden, lecturer on Labor Problems and formerly labor adviser to the E.C.A., who taught the course on international labor relations.

One of the special facilities in the University maintained for the Trade Union Fellows is the Labor and Industrial Relations Library, one of the largest of its kind in the country. It contains back issues of more than 300 union journals, including all publications issued by international labor organizations. Students in the program can also make use of the library's extensive collection of trade union constitutions, labor agreements and arbitration awards.

No Previous Schooling

Admission to the program does not hinge on any specific educational requirements. Of the 98 men and six women who have enrolled since 1942, few have earned college degrees and some have not even finished grade school: their average age is about 35 years.

Nevertheless, Healy says, the union representatives do "extremely well" in their studies, although it sometimes takes them a few weeks to become acclimatized to their surroundings. Since the course is geared for students with extensive practical experience in labor work, Healy has found that the students' deficiencies in formal education have not hampered them in their work here; most of the courses are run under the case system, and discussions are held on an informal basis.

In the two courses which the labor leaders take in conjunction with students from the Business School, the Advanced Management Program and the School of Public Administration, the Fellows' industrial background generally gives then an edge in class discussions.

The overall scheme of the program is designed especially for the union representatives. The course work deals with actual policy questions and decisions with which labor leaders are faced; negotiation of agreements, presentation of problems to government agencies, and arbitrators.

Since the representatives come from a variety of industries, special assignments are periodically handed out covering the students' own fields. The particular problems of the Railroad Workers' Brotherhoods are generally singled out because of the unique organizational setup of that group.

A.F.L. Strong

Most of the American participants in the program are members of branches of the American Federation of Labor; C.I.O. students have always been a definite minority. Healy points out that, despite President Philip Murray's enthusiastic endorsement of the project, the C.I.O. seems to be "a little suspicious" of the Harvard label which it bears and prefers to rely on its own educational system in training labor executives.

Murray's praise has been echoed by many other important figures in the labor world. "This program has...made a very appreciable contribution to the organized labor movement in this country," A.F.L. President William Green has declared.

"Our unions are increasingly faced with the most complex variety of problems; and its is most essential that we develop a large group of union members and officers who are qualified by training and study to help this country's organized labor movement find constructive solutions, not only to labor problems but to the issues which confront the entire nation."