A Temporary Agreement

Harvard's largest Union certainly did not go unnoticed on campus either.

In October, members of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) began to protest proposed cuts in part-time health-care benefits scheduled to take effect in January 1997.

These cuts were part of a recommendation made in the fall of 1994 by a task force of 10 top-level Harvard administrators. The cuts were made after the University reported a $10 million structural deficit.

The proposed cuts were in health and dental insurance benefits and would effect 500 workers beginning on Jan. 1, 1997. Officials said they wanted to reduce contribution to insurance premiums from 85 percent to 70 percent for all staff who work less than 28 hours per week.

The reduction would have cost workers up to $700 more each year in premiums and would save the University about $200,000, according to the Union.

Members of HUCTW began to outwardly protest the decision, marching around Mass. Hall, shaking chains and booing Provost Albert Carnesale, who is responsible for labor relations.

The picketing and tension over the cuts painfully illuminated a 14-month-old misunderstanding between the University and HUCTW over the role of the Joint Committee on Benefits (JCB) in discussions of the benefits package in the union's 1995 contract.

University officials said HUCTW had accepted the benefit cuts when the contract was negotiated in the summer of 1995.

But HUCTW disagreed, saying that the JCB was created during the contract negotiations to provide a means of continuing negotiations on benefit issues. Union members looked to the committee for renegotiating the benefit cuts.

"There is absolutely no doubt that the Union and the University agreed that [the JCB] was the place where we were going to discuss and decide difficult benefit policies and questions," said Bill Jaeger, director of HUCTW.

But Carnesale, who must approve all labor agreements before presenting them to the Corporation, disagreed with the interpretation.

Carnesale said the University would "not tolerate" a committee that had such negotiating power.

Protesting continued throughout the winter in front of Mass. Hall. Picketers were seen almost every day carrying signs and cutouts of Carnesale's head on sticks as they circled around the entrance.

But on Feb. 14, after months of protesting, HUCTW and the University inked an agreement to halt the reduction of part-time worker health benefits for another year.

The postponement was accompanied by a commitment by the University and HUCTW to continue negotiations until a final agreement is reached.

Both union and University officials said they were glad to see progress in the stalemate extending three years back when the University first proposed the cuts.

"We're extremely happy that we were able to reach an agreement and the [health] benefits won't be cut," said Donene M. Williams, president of HUCTW.

A permanent settlement has not yet been reached.