After five months of negotiations characterized as "open" and "involved," Harvard University and the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) have reached a "tentative agreement on a new three-year contract" according to a joint statement released yesterday.

"I believe the process went very well. The discussions were productive," said Timothy R. Manning, director of labor relations for the University. "We had some difficult issues, but as a testimony to our relationship, we were able to work through them. The University is very pleased with the result."

HUCTW officials said they are also pleased. "We're very happy. It's a great contract from our point of view," said William Jaeger, the director of HUCTW. "It's great to be done without any more delay or acrimony than we've had. Everyone in the leadership of the union is extremely happy."

The new agreement, which will expire June 30, 1998, provides for `structural' salary increases of 1.3 percent, 1.8 percent and 1.3 percent in the next three years, in addition to `progression' increases, which deliver minimum increases of three percent of the salary grade to employees with more than a year of service, according to the statement.

"It's close to what some of the other groups have done," Manning said of the salary increases. Other campus groups which have recently negotiated new contracts with the University include the police and dining service unions.

"They're comparable to what the other groups got," Williams echoed. "They're good, solid increases."

"The progression increase is very important to us," Jaeger said. "Those are increases that reward experience. The fact that there are general increases inaddition to that makes it a satisfying increaseprogram for us."

Harvard and its largest union still mustdiscuss the matter of union members' benefits,which so far has not been fully resolved.According to the statement, benefits changes willnot be implemented until some time in 1996.

To this end the two sides have created a newstanding committee, called the Joint Committee onBenefits, to discuss the issue of union members'benefits--the most difficult issue in this set ofnegotiations--further and with less pressure,negotiators for both sides said.

According to Manning, the new committee willhave a charter similar to that of the UniversityBenefits Committee (UBC). The UBC, which is madeup of faculty and administration members, wascreated late in the last academic year to keep thefaculty informed, and advise the provost, onbenefits issues.

"Once we started discussing it [the committee]both the Union and the University recognized thepower of the idea," Donene M. Williams, presidentof HUCTW, said.

Jaeger agreed that the new community will bebeneficial to both HUCTW and the University."We're expecting that over time, all importantbenefits issues, including programs currently inplace and other interesting new ideas, could seegood, thoughtful discussion," he said.

"We have a lot of faith in the process that thecommittee represents to deal with the issues in afair and responsible way," he added.

In addition to the major issues of benefits andsalaries, the negotiators also dealt with issuesof child care, education assistance, adoptionassistance and additional time off.

"The child care and work and family programestablished in the last contract was an importantprogram," Manning said. "We were able tostrengthen that program [child care] which Ithought was the next best step."

Union negotiatiors also expressed theirhappiness with the new programs.

"We've created a fund to help union memberswith the costs of adoption," Williams said, addingthat the fund will begin with $15,000 and add$6,000 in 1996 and 1997.

The contract also provides for extra personaltime during the winter holiday season, Jaegersaid. Starting in 1996 and 1997, members will have3 days off instead of the current one and a half.

"The little things that are not big cost items,that haven't gotten a lot of publicity, will makeHarvard a better place to work," Jaeger said.

Although the contract must be approved byHUCTW's members, union leaders said that theyexpect the contract to be easily ratified at theirSeptember meeting.

"I feel the members will be very happy,"Williams said, noting that the union will beworking to inform their members about the contractin the coming weeks.

This year's five-month negotiation period ismuch shorter than the 1992 negotiations, whichlasted into January. Negotiators say they workedhard to avoid another prolonged process.

"In some ways, these negotiations were moredifficult in 1992 because of the challenges of thebenefits issue," Williams said. "The way weactually conducted the talks [this year] wassmoother."

"The major focus was to reach an agreement asquickly as possible," Manning said. "When you getinto a protracted process, it becomes verydisruptive."

"I think it's a good sign that we've reachedanother plateau in our relationship," he said.

"I think it's great for the whole Universitycommunity that we could find a healthy way to keepworking together on the benefits issue," Jaegersaid. "It's a big relief for us. There were somemoments where that seemed potentially reallyvolatile.