Twenty-four Everett Decorators employees have spent the last week on strike outside Johnston Gate, asking Harvard to intervene in their struggle to gain union recognition and keep working.

Until this week, the painters had been employed by a contractor hired by Harvard to perform rehabilitation and redecoration on Yard buildings. But two weeks ago, the painters went on strike to seek union recognition, and this week, the firm has laid off its workers and closed its doors, citing the health of the owner.

Now, Harvard is in the market for a new contractor to finish the work, and the striking workers are asking that they be allowed to finish the jobs they started.

"We still believe Harvard has a responsibility to those workers," said John Laughlin, the spokesperson for Painters and Allied Trades District Council Five, the workers' chosen bargaining agent. "We expect we will be out there until that workforce is back to work in some capacity."

University spokesperson Merry D. Touborg said Harvard is considering the possibility of re-employing the workers through a different contractor, but has not yet chosen a firm.

"That could be an outcome, but all of this is not resolved at this point," Touborg said. She said Harvard is currently reviewing bids from a number of contractors for the project, which was originally scheduled to be completed by the time students return in September.

The labor dispute first began when Everett's workers started working at Harvard and learned that unionized painters working on the same projects were earning additional benefits and between $5 and $8 more per hour, according to Laughlin. After learning of the wage disparity, all 24 of the workers signed cards indicating that they wanted to join a union themselves.

But Laughlin said the company responded by hiring a law firm with a union-busting reputation and dismissing five workers in what union officials called retaliation.

"We knew pretty quickly the game plan was going to be to stall recognition

and to fire the workers," said Lori A. Sutherland, a union field organizer.

Painters reacted to the five dismissals by going on strike and appealing to the University for help.

"Rather than be picked off one by one, the group wanted to go on strike for union recognition," Laughlin said.

Harvard officials responded by claiming that the University is not permitted to intervene in a private labor dispute between another firm and its employees.

But union representatives have argued that Harvard could set minimum wage standards, and that now that Everett is no longer capable of finishing the job, Harvard has a responsibility to see that the firm's workers are employed.

"Harvard employs this contractor," Laughlin said. "They as a University can set standards for the contractors they employ."

"This contractor didn't all of the sudden wind up on Harvard's campus and begin to paint without Harvard's knowledge," he added. "They hired them."

Laughlin--who characterized Harvard's response to the picketing campaign thus far as "deafening silence"--said the situation raises civil rights concerns as well.

He said all of the workers employed by Everett Decorators are ethnic minorities, as is the owner of the firm. And while Laughlin said the firm's owner benefited from preferences given to minorities in the contract bidding process, he said the benefits are not being passed on to minority workers.

"All they're asking is that they get paid the same amount for people of color as white workers working for Harvard," Laughlin said