To the Editors of The Crimson:

I am writing to express my irritation at your snide and irresponsible cartoon directed against HUCTW in The Crimson on December 5.

I assume that most if not all of you on the Crimson staff, including your cartoonist, are still comfortably dependent on your parents for your financial needs. Therefore, you have yet to experience the realities of being self-supporting, especially in Boston which has the third highest cost of living in the nation.

For you, issues such as affordable day care, adequate pensions, the high costs of medical coverage and the ratio of housing costs to wages may be stimulating topics for debate over a late-night beer or two. For us, they are the stuff of real life and deadly serious matters. And judging from the considered and considerable support HUCTW has received from the Harvard student body as a whole, the Crimson staff of late is virtually alone in failing to grasp this.

Make no mistake about HUCTW. We aim to win at the negotiating table because we literally cannot afford to lose. And we will win as long as we share in a common purpose and common determination to achieve our goals.

For the good of all, those who voted against HUCTW are now invited to join us, to share in our victory and in our future. But they will have to join as supporters, not detractors. Reconciliation requires effort and good will on both sides, not just the Union side.

Union matters will be decided by Union members. There is nothing undemocratic about that, Robert Scott and your cartoonist notwithstanding, HUCTW is creating the greatest labor democracy ever seen at Harvard, and is making labor history in this country. Which side are you on, boys, which side are you on? Tamsey K. Andrews   Widener Library