Vice President and General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54 says the University still opposes a secretary and technician union and that Harvard will "continue to improve...programs and policies and make Harvard a better place to work."
Prior Disputes
The recent leadership split is not the first obstacle organizers have faced.
In January 1976, the regional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) director denied District 65's request for recognition as an acceptable bargaining unit for the 800 Medical Area clerical and technical employees. The decision upheld Harvard's contention that the employees should seek a University-wide clerical union. It also made a formal union election impossible.
The NLRB, however, a year later overturned in a 3-2 vote its January 1976 decision allowing District 65 to hold an election among Medical Area workers.
When the union came to a vote in July 1977 the 848 Medical Area workers voted against District 65 representing them at the bargaining table. The final votes showed 436 workers opposed the union, 346 for District 65, and 66 contested ballots. Before the election, Harvard led an extensive campaign against District 65 using meetings and leaflets to inform the workers of its reasons for opposing the union.
The for/against margin slimmed in a second NLRB election in 1981, but Medical Area workers still oppossed the UAW, 390-328. Organizers filed a complaint with the NLRB charging that Harvard unfairly influenced the election by threatening workers' jobs before ballots were cast.
In August that year, an NLRB hearing officer ruled that a new vote be taken. But NLRB Regional Director Robert W. Fuchs overruled that decision in November. Litigation over the legitimacy of the election continued throughout 1982 until the federal branch of the NLRB made the final ruling that the 1981 election was conducted fairly.
In a move that substantially changed UAW organizing tactics, the NLRB ruled in April 1984 that the Medical Area secretaries and technicians did not constitute a bargaining unit separate from other University clerical and technical workers.
Union organizers said the board ruling resulted from the pro-management shift the NLRB has taken since President Reagan took office in 1981. That decision reversed an earlier board decision and meant the UAW had to expand its drive beyond the Med School organizing all University clerical and technical workers.
The UAW staff moved their offices from Kenmore Square to Central Square. For the last year-and-a-half, Rondeau and her seven-member staff have held lunchtime meetings with workers, formed a small choral group and put on a musical.
All but one of the local UAW organizers split to form the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers. "We are pretty much back to business as usual," says former UAW organizer Martha Robb.
Despite the internal and external diputes, Rondeau remains a "professional optiminst," she says.
"I don't see the organizing drive as a long struggle. I see it as a process of getting a lot of problems solved. There is never a feeling of pounding your head against the wall," she adds.