President Neil L. Rudenstine yesterday passionately defended Harvard against charges that it is hostile to labor unions.

An open letter released yesterday by a coalition of Harvard unions representing 5000 workers says that "throughout the University, Harvard's management is taking a more combative and hostile stance toward its own workers."

Citing "management hostility and paralysis," the letter says that "in our view, the course of labor relations now being pursued by top Harvard managers is unnecessarily antagonistic, mean-spirited and wasteful of our University's resources."

Though Rudenstine had not read the letter, he answered questions about it at a meeting with reporters yesterday.

In response to the letter--signed by representatives of all nine Harvard unions and the president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO--Rudenstine spoke intensely about how Harvard cares about its workers. He said he thinks union members perform "extremely important functions" and he cares about how they are paid.

"We shouldn't be misled on that, that's just too serious," Rudenstine said in tones that were measured, but louder than usual.

"We're talking about a lot of people, and those are people I care about. And they are people I have invested a lot of time in," he said. "I think it's an honest, good, candid negotiation. We know what the wages are, we know what the situation with the university's finances are, and we can make an honest judgment about that, I think," he said.

"That's important," Rudenstine said.

The president also defended the four percent raise Harvard has offered the union, which he described as a "modest, real income gain." He said the offer is in line with the pay increases faculty and administrators received in July.

"Everybody thinks that that offer is a fair offer. Everybody agrees. It may or may not be a fair offer, but I think it is," Rudenstine said emphatically.

The president spoke more intensely yesterday than he has in more than a year of bi-weekly interviews with The Crimson. He stared at the reporters, and his voice had an edge that is usually absent. While the president did not lose his temper, he appeared extremely serious.

Rudenstine also returned to the topic of labor relations several times throughout the interview, at times without prompting. He said he has spent a lot of time talking to Harvard union workers, in informal chats and about 20 formal meetings.

"I think there's been a conscious effort to try to reach out," he said. "I care. I am personally concerned."

The letter from the union coalition says "a new, conscious antiunionism or simply uncontrolled decentralization" might be behind "disintegrating labor-management relations at Harvard University."

Rudenstine said, "There is as far as I am concerned no hint, taint or remote sense of anything with respect to the unions except to treat them in the most constructive and positive way."

But the coalition's letter cites five examples pointing toward a breakdown in labor-management relations. One example is Harvard's hiring outside non-union contractors to do work on campus. Rudenstine said yesterday that financial prudence and responsibility require the University to put contracts up for bids.

Vice President for Administration Sally H. Zeckhauser said last night Harvard encourages both union and non-union contractors to submit bids for construction work, and she said the current Yard renovations are an example of "a very successful" agreement touse union contractors.

The coalition also says in the letter that"management negotiators have adopted a hostile andunyielding posture" in the stalled negotiationswith the clerical and technical workers, whosecontract expired June 30. Zeckhauser said lastnight she does not think management negotiatorshave been mean-spirited.

The letter also refers to Harvard's treatmentof Harold W. Hirtle, a union shop steward at theUniversity Publisher, who claimed he wasunlawfully suspended from his job to penalize himfor his union activities. Harvard rescinded thesuspension.

The union letter says the National LaborRelations Board ruled that Harvard broke the lawin its conduct; Zeckhauser said she thinks thecomplaint was dropped.

The federal Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration also fined Harvard $12,500 forsafety violations at the University Publisher, theletter says. Zeckhauser said the violations havebeen corrected.

The letter from the unions also included acomplaint about the definition of "public safetyrisks" by supervisors at the Harvard UniversityPolice Department.

Zeckhauser cited recent contract settlementsbetween Harvard and two other labor unions asexamples of labor relations successes.Gady A. Epstein contributed to the reporting ofthis story.