Contract Negotiations Dispute

Erlich also said that the University has ignored agreements it reached with the union during previous contract negotiations.

Over the last four years, the union has negotiated contracts for almost 20 University projects at wages which are 90 percent of the union's normal rates.

In exchange, Erlich said, Harvard agreed to formulate a University-wide policy setting minimal standards for the labor practice of outside contractors.

"We did the jobs, gave something to Harvard and we didn't get what we expected in return," Erlich said. "The quid pro quo never materialized, and it became clear that the University was not taking the issue seriously."

University officials denied that Harvard ever made such an agreement.

"There has never been a commitment to craft a University-wide policy concerning outside contracting, except in a very general way...providing a level playing field," Touborg said.

She declined to be more specific, saying that the individual schools normally make their own outside contracting decisions.

In response, Erlich blasted this policy as yet another drawback to the University's fiercely decentralized nature.

"This is an embarrassment to an institution with a reputation such as Harvard's that functions so incompetently at a management level," he said.

Meanwhile, the leader of at least one other union expressed support for the picketing by Local 40.

Bill Jaeger, director of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW), said all Harvard-associated unions agree that minimum standards in labor practices are necessary.

"We think that overall there are huge problems, especially a lack of any coherent policy on what kind of company gets contracts for Harvard work and a lack of any widely observed standard about those companies' employment practices," Jaeger said