Students, faculty, administrators and union leaders breathed a collective sigh of relief yesterday afternoon as the 23 Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) members exited Mass. Hall to applause and red roses--ending a 21-day long occupation of the administrative building.
A two-hour-long rally heralding the exit featured jubilant speeches from labor leaders and local politicians and attracted hundreds of supporters.
The decision to leave the administrative building came after a long night of deliberations, following a marathon negotiation session held yesterday that included high-ranking AFL-CIO officials and top Harvard administrators, including General Counsel Anne Taylor, Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Paul S. Grogan and Harvard University Police Department Chief Francis D. "Bud" Riley.
The agreement reached this morning will not immediately result in higher wages for Harvard employees, but instead focuses on a set of promises to reexamine workers' issues at the University.
The University has agreed to form a new committee with a Dec. 19 deadline to report back to incoming University President Lawrence H. Summers on all aspects of workers' benefits, including outsourcing and the possibility of implementing a "living wage" of $10.25 per hour, PSLM's central demand.
The University has also agreed to reopen contract negotiations with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) four weeks after the committee issues its report. The contract negotiated with SEIU, the union that represents Harvard's janitorial staff--some of whose members earn less than a living wage--will be retroactive as of May 1.
Additionally, the University has issued a moratorium on new outsourcing until the committee issues its report.
As news of the University's agreement reached Mass. Hall yesterday, protesters began the long task of cleaning up the hallway and three rooms that have been their home for three weeks, vacuuming, washing, spraying disinfectant and carefully removing their posters from the walls inside.
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