Harvard is not alone in experiencing an upswingin labor relations.

Unions and corporations have been getting alonebetter throughout the United States, according toAscherman Professor of Economics Richard B.Freeman, who is an expert on labor relations.

"There's been a trend down in strikes, and ifyou talk to managers, by a two-to-one ratiothey'll tell you that unions are more cooperativewith them," he says. "Harvard is probably fairlyrepresentative of established worker-managerrelations right now."

Freeman says labor relations are often mostturbulent in the years immediately followingunionization, and Harvard officials agree therelationship between HUCTW and the University mayhave simply needed time to mature.

"We've gotten the kinks out of therelationship," says Anne Taylor, vice presidentand general counsel for Harvard. "It has evolvedover time."

Taylor says since health benefits and salaryincrease rates--primary subjects of contention inrecent years--are particularly difficult issues toresolve, the strife may have been more areflection of the issues involved than the stateof labor relations.

Jaeger echoed this perception of the five-yearbenefits stand-off as a product of particularlytough issues. "The benefits battle was long andugly, and took different union and Universityleaders away from things they wanted to work on,"he says.

But a source close to the union says thedisagreement over benefits was politicallymotivated.

"A group of administrators decided to dosomething a few years ago, where they were tryingto control costs, but also to score a victory fortough management over the union," the source says.

A Troubled Past

As the 1994-97 battle over benefitsillustrates, things have not always gone wellbetween Harvard and HUCTW.

The University fought bitterly against theunion's formation in 1988, spending over $500,000on an anti-union campaign. Harvard blanketed thecampus with leaflets suggesting that unionizingwould bring in outsiders who would impose theiragendas on Harvard workers.

Once workers voted to form the union by arazor-thin margin, the University appealed thereferendum's legitimacy to the National LaborRelations Board in a move union officials calledsour grapes.

After this rocky start, however, HUCTWrepresentatives say a period of negotiation withUniversity officials left them feeling optimistic.They say the negotiations were successful in partbecause they were intended to begin a dialoguebetween union and University officials, ratherthan to negotiate a contract.

"From the point of view of everyone involved,that was a hugely successful negotiation," Jaegersays. "Lots of great ideas came out of it."