“It’s time to recognize the dignity of work and the needs of [Harvard’s] workers,” said says Potter, a Harvard Law School secretary and member of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW).

HUSPMGU leaders say they have received dozens of letters in support of the security guards.

Students in the Houses also expressed concern for the guards that patrol their grounds.

“[Security Guard William Duarte] has always been a member of the Mather community,” says David Rosenblatt ’02-’03, who was present at the rally. “Just in terms of feeling safe, it’s a very different thing to have someone who knows everything and what’s going on, rather than having people who are probably working three jobs.”

Squeeze Play

The controversy comes as the number of in-house security guards at Harvard has dwindled from a peak of 122 in the late 1980s to the mere 17 today.

As of 2001, the University employed 174 outsourced security guards.

Harvard has been averse to keeping its security guards in-house, citing consistent financial losses in its guards unit. It has made persistent efforts to outsource those guards, offering severance packages to encourage guards to retire from University service, in addition to filling vacancies with outsourced guards.

“The University has announced it does not believe it can make the guards a viable financial Unit and plans to eventually end the in-house uniformed guard operation,” said the final report of the Harvard Committee on Employment and Contracting Practices (HCECP), which was released in December 2001.

The committee was convened in May 2001 by then-University President Neil L. Rudenstine in response to the PSLM living wage sit-in of Mass. Hall that year.

Security guards have said this policy of trying to eliminate their unit has made them constantly wary of the University. Working for an employer that wants to be rid of them results in tough working conditions, they say.

While its current four-year contract is up on July 1, HUSPMGU wages were renegotiated last May in line with HCECP recommendations, increasing the minimum wage paid to security guards from $8.75 an hour to $12.25 an hour. Entry-level wages rose further last July, to $12.70. Though entry-level salaries were raised dramatically, all of the in-house security guards earned $11.97 before the renegotiation, more than the $10.68 minimum-wage named by the report.

This commitment has only served to increase costs in the already cash-strapped guards department, as has the University’s adoption of a Wage and Benefits Parity Policy, promising to compensate outsourced employees as the same level as in-house employees.

With a parity wage and benefits policy, unions can negotiate higher pay and benefits and do not have to fear that outside contractors will be able to undercut them simply by paying their employees lower compensation, the HCECP report said.

But if the University eliminated its in-house security guards entirely, outsourcing would present an opportunity to diminish guard compensation. With no in-house security guards remaining, outsourced guard wages would have to be comparable to the wages of an in-house job category performing the same or similar work.