Most workers interviewed in the past two weeks by The Crimson were firm in their belief that Hicks should not have been fired.

"I know he does a good job, I support him," said one employee. "He's a very good shop steward."

"They don't like him because he's a fighter," said another.

And Hicks' backers are not limited to his fellow employees.

Members of the Harvard-Radcliffe Labor Alliance (HRLA), a student group, this week issued a list of demands to Diane Patrick, director of the University's Office of Human Resources, that included a call for Hicks to be reinstated and a request for a "full-scale" investigation into discrimination at Harvard dining halls.

HRLA will circulate a petition among students urging the administration to rehire Hicks. That effort may be co-sponsored by the Black Students Association, which will decide at a meeting tomorrow night whether to lend its support to the fired cook.

The flurry of activity surrounding the Hicks case has likely caught HDS administrators, including Berry, by surprise. The HDS director was out of the country this week and could not be reached for comment, according to his secretary.

Shaffer said the charges have disturbed him, adding, though, that he is confident Hicks does not have a case.

"It bothers us because we live here. We work with everyone 12 hours a day," Shaffer said. "[Hicks is] grabbing at straws and the only one he's got is his color."

Hicks, however, has had success with appealing the dining hall management's decisions in the past.

In July, 1990, the University's Office of Human Resources reversed a one-day suspension of Hicks handed down by Shaffer for failing to report an absence for illness and for his "poor performance and attitude."

Shaffer later testified before an arbitrator that he had been informed Hicks would be absent--though not by Hicks--and that Hicks had called him the day of the absence to confirm that he would be reporting for his next shift.

In September, 1992, the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents ordered Harvard to reimburse Hicks for back pay, medical costs and attorney's fees that the University had denied him after an on-the-job accident. Hicks missed work for nearly three months after the injury.

And in November, 1992, an arbitrator from the American Arbitration Association ruled against Harvard on a one-day suspension of Hicks meted out in August, 1990. Although the arbitrator called Hicks' work record "distressing," he also criticized Shaffer and Union Manager Katherine E. D'Andria for failing to discuss their concerns with Hicks before suspending him.

The arbitrator ruled that there was no "just cause" for the suspension, which had been issued for an "unsatisfactory attendance record" and "poor performance."