*****

In the Sharpe Refectory, Broan's main dining hall--known to students as the Rattie--students sit eating franks and beans, and everything seems back to normal. Hanging out at the back of the building, the spot where the eleven were arrested for blocking a truck, stands Tony Broccoli, a cook. "I'm a scab," says Broccoli, "but everything in there seems to be pretty friendly to me."

Broccoli's case is one of many that may complicate the return of workers to the dining halls and may keep the library strike going considerably longer. Brown apparently has agreed to give full-time jobs to all non-union personnel hired during the strike.

In the kitchen, it appears likely that all union and non-union personnel will easily be accommodated in jobs; all the service workers are scheduled to return by Monday and none of the non-union workers has been asked to leave. The situation in the libraries is much less cut-and-dried. The university hired 17 non-union workers to fill "essential" library posts and has apparently promised them they will be eligible for full-time jobs after the strike is settled. But the striking workers now view "return to work" conditions as the most important issue in the strike; specifically, they are concerned that the university may see fit to reinstate them in jobs other that those they were originally hired to fill.

On the picket line Tuesday, Beth Coogan, a shop steward and negotiator for the library workers, echoed the prevailing concerns of her fellow workers. "I know for a fact that I have already been replaced," she said. "The big problem here is that people just don't know the facts." The picket line--normally staffed by no more than five people--runs from 8:30 a.m. until midnight, 99 hours a week. For a while, students had been joining in the lines; now, the newest Vise initiative calls for the stepped up use of library facilities in order to force an early settlement. Previously, Vise members had advised fellow students, with a remarkable degree of success, to boycott the libraries entirely, and library use fell, for a time, to one-third normal level. The workers say they are grateful for the student support the Vise members have marshalled.

Rita Warnock, a library worker, says student support "has helped a lot. It has catalyzed university movement on the issues on several occasions, and it is a real moral boost for us."

Helen Kurtz, Brown's associate head librarian, stares down from her office in the Rockefeller library at the strikers, as she downplays the effects the strike has had on the library. "I'm sure they'd like to think we're suffering a lot more than we are," she pauses. "But total use is down, and we are all pinched."

Talks in the library workers walkout broke off at the beginning of the month; no new talks are currently scheduled. The arrested students face up to a year in jail and fines of $500 on the charge of obstructing a public thoroughfare; in addition, they will come up for an internal hearing before the University Committee on Student Affairs, possible sometime next week. The internal proceeding, which some students say they hope to turn into a "circus with as many rings as possible," could result in suspension from Brown.