“There were these massive layoffs and people weren’t getting jobs at Harvard. We found that the whole thing was falling apart,” Morani said.
“When you leave things to good faith, it doesn’t work,” she added, pointing to the decentralized administration at Harvard as the reason why laid-off employees have been falling through the cracks.
Morani said the contract, negotiated in 2001, called for a committee to monitor layoff cases, but these responsibilities have been skirted by the University.
She said that the current negotiations should strengthen the University’s dedication to that oversight. Prior to the recent round of negotiations that began in October, a subcommittee was formed in response to the lapse in work security enforcement.
Morani said that another work security provision in the current contract—an extension of wages and benefits for up to three months for laid-off employees looking for work—has failed in its aim to deter the University from laying off employees.
“It doesn’t really happen like that. Harvard took it in their stride, they just carried on, and added it to their costs,” Morani said.
Another recommendation submitted to the contract negotiating committee was a proposal to reinforce the need for a pre-layoffs warning so that the union has time to respond.
“Before they lay off people, they have to tell the union about it so they can figure something out, so we could examine and explore other ways of saving the money other than through the layoffs,” Morani said. “They hadn’t been doing that always.”
Though Morani and Jaeger said they are trying to negotiate policies that will deter or cushion layoffs, some HUCTW members said they would prefer that the union instead negotiate for the ultimate work security: a no-layoffs clause.
“A lot of us feel like it’s not a good enough [work security] policy and it should be changed to a no-layoffs clause in the contract,” said Geoff Carens, a HUCTW member who is active in the No Layoffs Campaign, a group composed of workers and students that has organized several protests this year.
“I just think people would be in a much better position if the union…organized from a position of strength,” Carens said. “We’ve had no [official] rallies, no public actions by the union leadership. Instead it’s just backroom deals, behind closed doors, which is profoundly wrong.”
ALSO ON THE TABLE
According to Jaeger and Morani, however, the union has made earnest efforts to involve the Harvard community in the negotiations.
Last month, for instance, union representatives handed out flyers explaining the issues on the negotiating table to students.
Although much of the flyer was devoted to describing the budget crunch caused by Harvard’s expansion, it also called for more reliable training opportunities, wider educational benefits and housing assistance for employees.
