The report stated that after the University’s negotiations with SEIU Local 254, Harvard should “quickly” move into negotiations with the dining service and security guard and parking workers unions. The committee suggests May 2002 as a deadline for this set of negotiations.

The report includes a strong indictment of outsourcing, blaming the practice of using outside contractors for driving down wages on campus.

“Outsourcing should not be used to lower wages and weaken the unions representing Harvard’s employees,” the report stated.

The committee recommended that a “parity” wage and benefits policy be applied to all potential contractors.

“We believe that the solution here is to try to fix the system, not gut the system,” said Professor of Economics Lawrence F. Katz, the chair of the committee, in an interview yesterday.

Instead of an explicit ban on outsourcing, he said ensuring parity would take away the University’s incentive to contract out work as a cost-cutting mechanism while maintaining the positive aspects of outsourcing—“innovation, productivity and competition,” Katz said.

Creating a wage floor by adopting a living wage, Katz said, would encourage subcontractors to merely pay the minimum.

“The wage floor could also become a kind of wage ceiling,” the report stated.

Many members, therefore, felt adopting a living wage would address “the symptoms and not the causes” of low wages at Harvard.

But McKean and seven other members of the committee signed concurring opinions that advocated wage floor, in addition to the parity wage and benefits policy.

“We remain convinced that the only way to ensure that wages will keep pace with the cost of living is to adopt a living wage policy,” McKean wrote.

What’s Next?

According to the report, the committee plans to reconvene in May to assess the University’s progress in implementing the recommendations.

But committee members will not know until after Jan. 18 whether Summers will choose to accept the recommendations.

“I would hope the president takes these recommendations very seriously,” Katz said yesterday.