Protesters have accused the University of presenting union leaders with the choice of either settling for lower wages or forfeiting jobs to outside companies. PSLM member Daniel B. Weissman ’05 called the parity policy a “minor cosmetic change.”
“They’re using the threat of outsourcing as a point of negotiation with the unions,” he said. “They were careful to avoid very concrete statements, which allowed them to weasel around things. What do they start doing after we leave? They start busting the guards union, just getting rid of all the unionized workers.”
By last fall, Harvard’s in-house security force had dwindled from a peak of 122 in the late 1980s to a mere 17. By early spring, the number of unionized security guards fell to seven, and on June 30, when they will trade in their Harvard uniforms for company garb from Allied Security, their breed will be completely extinct.
That leaves just under 80 members in the Harvard University Security, Parking and Museum Guards’ Union (HUSPMGU), and their contract will run out in 2006.
Not all of Harvard’s unions have been as successful as HUCTW in preparing for future budget cuts. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615, which represents Harvard’s 800 custodians, found itself staging regular protests this year in conjunction with the PSLM, demanding more full-time jobs and better wages for its members.
According to the current contract, the University must put forth its “best effort” to transform 60 percent of custodial jobs into full-time positions by November 2005, when negotiations with the union will begin anew.
“We don’t even see any evidence that [the University] is trying to reach the 60 percent mark,” said SEIU rally organizer Aaron Bartley at a February protest. “People who have worked four hours a day for 15 years are not given real jobs.”
The SEIU had been campaigning for more full-time positions since the previous winter, demanding that the seniority of long standing part-time employees be taken into account when job openings arise. As of last February, union representatives were meeting regularly with University officials to discuss the subject of seniority, but if the strong SEIU presence at a recent May Day labor rally in Harvard Yard is any indication, the conflict remains unresolved.
HUMAN RESOURCES STEPS UP
A new position at Mass. Hall may force some progress, as current human resources head Polly Price leaves her post this summer and makes way for a new and more prominent position—a vice president of human resources who will report directly to Summers.
Jaeger said the elevation of human resources to the same level of prominence as finance, alumni affairs and administration is an opportunity for a promising new era of labor relations at Harvard.
Jaeger, who sits on the search committee in charge of choosing candidates for the position, said that his union is paying close attention to the type of person who gets hired, as their personal approach to management will define the direction of the University’s labor relations.
“There’s different kinds of philosophies out there about managing people,” Jaeger said. “Everybody in the human resources world said that they’re interested in training, but if you look at people’s records, some of them are much more focused on controlling costs, and finding ways to operate more efficiently with fewer people.”
While Human Resources is growing in prominence and HUCTW looks ahead optimistically, the MTC is threatening to strike and HUSPMGU is losing the last of its security guards to outsourcing. Spending priorities at the top of the command post continue to change, and labor at Harvard finds itself at a critical juncture as the academic, and perhaps more importantly, fiscal year comes to a close. The University’s expansion into Allston stands to introduce thousands of new jobs in the long run while immediately threatening the security of existing workers.
With more cutbacks and frugality to come, Harvard workers and their union leaders are bracing themselves for uncertain times.
“It’s like an equation,” said Leon Welch, a unionized purchasing assistant with University Health Services. “People are working in fear of what they see. If there’s a bunch of dominoes starting to fall up at the top, it’ll be your turn after a while.”
—Staff writer Leon Neyfakh can be reached at neyfakh@fas.harvard.edu.