"While we didn't make immediate gains, we did make clear that we wouldn't stand for their low offers. And I think our strike helped our next negotiations, because they knew we could strike," says Linda Crouse, chief steward for the USW.

Crouse says she expects the university to continue to take a hard-line toward union demands when they meet to negotiate a new contract by August 31. The union will probably include a better pension plan and increased job security among its demands, Crouse says.

At B.U., which faces a June 30 deadline on a new contract, relations between management and the union are growing strained, as union representatives are beginning to organize employees at B.U. Medical Campus, according to local head Lisa Mizarro.

Until this year, the union, which was established in 1979, has helped improve relations between workers and management, according to Mizarro.

"There was a misconception that the people in the unions were malcontents. But in fact, since we established ourselves and B.U. knows were here to stay, we've been a lot more cooperative. The fact is, middle-level managers need to have guidelines for working with their employees, and workers need to have precise job classification," Mizarro says.

At Columbia, the union and administration also face a June 30 deadline for a new contract. Union organizer Rosenstein says she expects Columbia to maintain its hard line toward the local, despite concessions made three years ago, when the union got a six percent per year across-the-board raise, dental and major medical coverage and a grievance procedure.

But while the three-year old union has not succeeded in forcing Columbia to accept all of its demands, it has brought about a change in the administration's attitude toward the workers, Rosenstein says. "It's completely different than before. Now we have a right to go to an impartial arbitrator as a final step in a dispute. The union contract has made the university treat its employees with greater respect," she says.