Open Letter from HUCTW office

We are re-posting this letter to reach as many people as possible.  Comments and reactions are encouraged.

Troubled Negotiations Need a Whole
Community’s Active Engagement

An Open Letter from the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers
July 2012

After nearly a year of research and preparation and three months of intensive negotiation, representatives of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) and the University have still not agreed on terms of a new contract to replace the Agreement that expired on June 30, 2012.  HUCTW and Harvard have agreed to extend the terms of the old Agreement indefinitely and to continue negotiating.  But it is now mid-July, two weeks past the end of the previous contract, and the negotiations need to enter a new phase, which will require the support and active engagement of a broader Harvard community.  

The University and HUCTW have a long and celebrated history of accomplishment, acting together constructively and creatively as partners. For 24 years, Union members, administrators, and faculty members have engaged in constructive conversations, tackled difficult issues, and developed innovative plans. But that positive, productive spirit is threatened by developments in the current negotiation. This is a critical time for Union members and friends to get involved and support our efforts to move forward with positive and innovative changes.

This Open Letter from HUCTW leaders is long, but we urge you to read it in its entirety, to learn about the issues under discussion and the sticking points in negotiations. The three policy areas in which HUCTW negotiators have encountered significant resistance from the University are the salary increase program, health care, and the bargaining unit.

SALARY INCREASE PROGRAM

HUCTW and Harvard have negotiated 23 annual increases for members of our Union since 1989. The current talks on a raise program for July 1, 2012, may be the most complicated and difficult to date.

Negotiations on wages are revealing deep differences of perspective about how thoroughly Harvard has recovered from the losses of 2008-09, and how optimistically we can return to strategies emphasizing investment and growth, including investment in the staff. HUCTW negotiators have pointed to powerful indicators showing that Harvard has regained a firm financial footing and is entering a period of ambitious growth.  In our Union’s view, after nearly three years of constraint and sacrifice, current financial conditions are strong and staff salary growth needs to be solid in the coming years. Conversely, University representatives are expressing concerns about constrained revenue growth in future years and insisting that caution is necessary, based on uncertainty about endowment returns and the possibility of reduced government funding for science research.

While many of the projects announced in recent months – EdX, the renovation of undergraduate residential houses, and new academic programming in the College and professional schools – are important and exciting, there is a stark and troubling contrast between the optimistic air of new activity that crackles across the campus today and the cries for extreme caution about staff salaries that we hear in our contract talks. In the same way our University’s leaders clearly believe it is critical to invest in our buildings and programs, the institution needs to understand the staff as critically important contributors to Harvard’s greatness, and return to significant investment in salary growth for HUCTW members.

We have come to believe that the University has regained its fiscal fitness based on the following factors: 

• Harvard has maintained a clean balance sheet (no deficit spending) during every year of the financial crisis, from Fiscal Year 2008 through FY 2011.
• In the aggregate, Harvard schools and departments have abundant reserves, well in excess of accepted standards for sufficient “rainy day” funds.
• The endowment has regained much of the value it lost in 2008, enough so that endowment funds distributed to the schools for operations have increased significantly (by 4% and 5%) in the past two years.
• Bold plans have been announced for renovating the undergraduate residential houses and for restarting construction of a new Allston campus.

Perhaps most important, every day Union members can see examples of Harvard returning to confident, expansive planning and spending.  A number of recent events demonstrate that Harvard administrators have moved away from the cautious and pessimistic outlook of recent years:

• Earlier this year, the University committed $30 million to EdX – a collaboration with MIT to offer courses online and free to the public.
• The number of staff jobs posted on ASPIRE (Harvard’s online job-posting system) has reached record high levels.  At this writing, there are nearly 430 new positions advertised on ASPIRE.
• Although the officially announced salary program for non-union “exempt” staff provided for 2% raises last year, HUCTW analysis of data on average exempt salaries shows that, among those non-union staff, the average full-time salary grew by 3.1% last year.  On top of that, exempt staff received an additional 1% in bonuses for last year. The average HUCTW full-time rate increased by 3.0% in the same period, with minimal bonus activity.

HEALTH CARE

HUCTW and Harvard representatives have been wrestling with philosophical differences on health care for several years now.  Copayments, retiree health, and efforts to reduce the financial burden on lower-paid employees are the most contentious issues on the table currently.

Everyone understands that the rising cost of health care is a shared problem that places strains on institutional budgets and on the family finances of staff and retirees. Too often in past years, University administrators have focused on cost-shifting strategies that reduce the employer’s costs by increasing employee copayments.  Union leaders have often felt unheard when putting forward strategies for “bending the curve” by lowering total costs for both the employer and employees, or redistributing the cost burden more fairly.

University representatives have reacted cautiously and hesitantly to the ideas HUCTW has introduced in negotiations, described in the bullets below. This is especially frustrating to Union members because the set of ideas HUCTW has advanced in these negotiations would reduce the University’s health care cost by more than a half-million dollars in 2013, with the promise of millions more in savings for future years.  Even more important, a thoughtfully balanced package would usher in a new era of creative collaboration focused on fair, affordable health care for employees and smart, progressive cost containment for the University.

These contrasting views continue to play out in the current negotiation, as the two sides struggle in several key areas:

• Union leaders believe that Harvard’s plan to introduce new coinsurance for retirees with an “out-of-pocket” maximum of $1,000 per year is too great a cost for lower-income retirees.
• HUCTW negotiators are proposing changes in the formula for employee contributions to monthly health care premiums – changes that would be cost-neutral for the University. We support a more progressive plan in which the premium burden on lower-income employees could be eased by enacting a small increase in premium rates for Harvard’s highest paid employees.
• Union leaders are willing to agree to incremental increases in copayments for active employees, but we are insisting that they should be part of a balanced package that recognizes differences in income among members of our community.
• HUCTW is also presenting important proposals for collaborative educational efforts to reduce health care costs by supporting better health consumer decisions and expanding wellness programs.

THE BARGAINING UNIT

For more than two years now, Union and University leaders have engaged in intensive discussions on disagreements about what types of jobs are eligible to be included in HUCTW. (The issue was given priority status in 2010 negotiations, and serious talks have been ongoing in the Joint Committee on the Bargaining Unit.) The crux of the difficulty is this:  HUCTW leaders believe that there is significant confusion and inconsistency across the University in the application of legal standards for “exempt” status under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), particularly in Salary Grades 55 and 56.  As a result, some hundreds of jobs are questionably classified as exempt, and staff members working in those positions are potentially being denied the benefits of inclusion in HUCTW. 

HUCTW and Harvard officials have studied and discussed the problem of FLSA exemption practices and their implications on union status extensively. We have read US Department of Labor “Opinion Letters,” reviewed hundreds of job postings and position descriptions, and conferred with key stakeholders including Human Resources professionals. At this point, HUCTW leaders believe strongly that the issue has been studied sufficiently, and it is time to take action. 

We have tried to be patient and reasonable about resolving bargaining unit questions.  Union negotiators are not demanding that the entire complex issue has to be resolved right now.  We are insisting that meaningful action needs to begin soon, at least on some of the most glaring examples of inappropriate exclusion from the bargaining unit. The bargaining unit and FLSA problem should be seen as an area of deep mutual interest – in the present, confused state, the University risks non-compliance with a federal law.  At the same time, HUCTW is eager to help resolve confusing cases, and to help develop clear and consistent standards on the use of exemptions and inclusion in the Union.

As in the health care negotiations, Harvard representatives have responded nervously to Union suggestions about steps toward resolving our bargaining unit differences. The bargaining unit problems are technically complex and politically charged, but should be manageable if we take a serious, thoughtful, and collaborative approach. After more than two years of patient, diligent review, it is time to begin that work in earnest.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

To be sure, there are difficult issues in this negotiation. Rising health care cost is a critical societal challenge that confounds policy-makers, employers, and families across the country.  Bargaining unit issues are always charged and complicated.  And questions about Harvard’s internal economy and the course of our recovery from the Great Recession are confusing for some at the moment.  At the same time, the University and HUCTW, working in mature and skillful partnership, should be able to collaborate productively on these issues.  So far in the 2012 negotiations, our Union’s efforts to establish a serious, constructive tone have not borne fruit.

For 24 years, HUCTW and Harvard have worked together – on divisive issues or areas of huge overlapping interest, in good and bad economic times.  Our Union has been a committed and principled partner, willing to work hard on tough policy questions and always ready with innovative new ideas about making Harvard fairer, stronger, and better. We have advocated strongly for solutions that benefit not just HUCTW members but the whole community.

That willingness and constructive spirit on the part of HUCTW has never been clearer than it was during the financial crisis of 2009-2011, when our members all across the campus did more and better with less and adjusted to painfully changed economic realities.  But now it is 2012.  If HUCTW and the University are going to thrive in partnership for our second quarter-century, Harvard administrators will need to match the Union’s determination, resourcefulness, and readiness to engage in the persistent listening, thoughtful consideration, and confident innovation that lead to good policies and a great workplace.

In the next few weeks, HUCTW leaders and members all across the University will be reaching out to colleagues in the faculty, non-union staff, students, and friends in the community to broaden the discussion about issues in our negotiation.  We hope that many in the community will share our hopes for a fair and progressive set of policies.  We will ask our friends to support our efforts to negotiate a contract that sets an impressive example of what a great University and a strong Union can do when they strive as partners for institutional greatness, deal with tough problems, and search steadfastly for balanced solutions.

Please contact HUCTW at 617-661-8289 or huctw.info@huctw.org if you have questions or ideas, or to find out more about how you can help work toward a good outcome in the negotiations.

HUCTW Executive Board and Organizing Staff

Tasha Williams, President Laura Ebenstein, Vice President Pam Mullaney, Treasurer Lynn Wang DeLacey, Secretary Geraldine Barney, Observatory Joslyn Evans, AAD Frank Garcia, UFS Andrea Kupski-Keane, FAS Margaret Moore DeChicojay, GSD Mike Piantigini, HMS Siobhan Saint Surin, HSPH Lesley Schoenfeld, HLS Esther Simmons, HBS Steve Sweeney, UIS Emily Vides, FAS Harvey Willson, HSDM Kate Zirpolo Flynn, SEAS

Missouri Ammons Carrie Barbash Peter Berry Gloria Buffonge Alex Chisholm Randi Ellingboe Joie Gelband Thomasin Guenard Emily Hankle Bill Jaeger Adrienne Landau Marie Manna Shamim Morani Rachael School Ann Sjostedt Donene Williams

Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers    617-661-8289    www.huctw.org

Open Letter to HUCTW Leadership from the No Layoffs Campaign

The following is a letter sent to the HUCTW leadership (Bill Jaeger, Tasha Williams, Donene Williams, Carrie Barbash, info@huctw.org, Laura Ebenstein, Pam Mullaney, Lynnwang Delacey) on Friday, March 9, 2012.  As of today, we have not received a reply.  Any response to this we plan on publishing in its entirety here as well.

Dear HUCTW members, elected leaders, and organizers,

We, the Harvard No Layoffs Campaign, consisting of many HUCTW activists and rank and file members are sending this letter to urge action and cooperation in fighting library layoffs.

On January 19^th, 2012 Harvard announced that they intended to reduce the Library workforce. While you began your discussions with Harvard about the downsizing, the No Layoffs campaign started a public campaign to draw attention to Harvard’s plan to lay workers off.  We:

·         Rallied against a Harvard “Community Conversation” with Occupy Harvard students and concerned community members (Jan. 25)
·         Rallied/protested with 100+ union members, students, faculty and community members Feb. 9^th in Harvard Square
·         Picketed on Feb. 16^th in support of Occupy Harvard site in Lamont (see OCCUPY BOSTON link below)http://www.occupyboston.org/2012/02/15/layoffs-campaign-picket-harvard/
·         Reached out to the Cambridge City Council for support opposing Harvard layoffs/bad business practice
·         Engaged with Harvard’s SLAM movement (Student Labor Action Movement) and OCCUPY Harvard movement
·         Reached out to media
·         Initiated petitions to support Research Librarians and to oppose Layoffs
·     Picketed with scores of supporters on March 1, during a snow shower.

Union members want coordinated, united action against these layoffs.  We all want to see HUCTW mobilizing its membership and working with the No Layoffs Campaign, SLAM, Occupy Harvard, UNITE-HERE and SEIU.

We welcome the recent open letter and that you have just announced some outreach but we seek clarification on how exactly you see the plan unfolding. The open letter described the problems with Harvard's plan, but did not describe what our response will be. We call on you (as leaders of HUCTW) to initiate and support visible actions and aggressively establish coalitions with other unions on campus.  We hope that you will expand on your written communications with members by calling an emergency membership meeting with quorum so that we can plan a campaign.

Our publicity and all this exposure has had an impact on Harvard. Bill Murphy has admitted as much. This is evidenced in the administration's attacks on OCCUPY Harvard’s free speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmdtfKAtdfY  and by their refusal to even meet with staff (canceling an open meeting and making it an online chat).

We ask you to:

·         Call an emergency, campus-wide membership meeting (with quorum) to plan out how HUCTW will fight this round of layoffs
·         Organize visibility actions and encourage HUCTW members to attend
·         Support No Layoffs events and initiatives
·         Reach out to work with OCCUPY Harvard and SLAM students on campus
·         Build active coalitions with other unions on campus
·     Immediately set a date for the largest possible rally of HUCTW members against management's threats to cut the jobs of library workers.

We all agree that a Library Reorganization must not result in job loss.  You already know that another round of support staff layoffs (after the 21% reduction in 2009) will result in ruined lives, will have a horrible impact on the Harvard community and result in a significant loss in union dues and power.  We can save jobs if we work together to mobilize the members.

In Solidarity,

-The No Layoffs Campaign

HUCTW Leadership Open Letter on Library Layoffs

Library System in Jeopardy

By Carrie Barbash, Alex Chisholm, and Bill Jaeger

Published: Monday, March 05, 2012

Since 2009, Harvard has been reorganizing its 73 libraries into a consolidated entity, the Harvard Library. Library staff members are deeply concerned that some of the proposed changes, including workforce reductions, will result in serious threats to the integrity of the Library. We worry that if the voices of staff are not heard and the reorganization continues on its present course, thousands of books and materials could be lost, service standards could drop to unacceptable levels, and human relationships that are key to research, curriculum, and collection development could be severed.

In recent communications, Harvard Library leaders have implied that staffing levels need to be reduced to put us in line with our peers, asserting that Harvard spends more on its library than other universities. But HL leaders have not provided the community with any data to support the assumption that this discrepancy is caused by “overstaffing.” We would expect Harvard Library to be more expensive to operate than its peers—it is larger, with a spectacularly broad and unique collection that requires sophisticated maintenance. It has significant offsite holdings, and offers deluxe services such as HD Transfer and “Scan-and-Deliver.”

Additionally, since 2009 (which is when the data comparing Harvard to other schools were gathered), Harvard Library staffing levels have dropped by more than 20 percent. More recently, the University offered eligible library workers an early-retirement package. With the threat of possible layoffs heavy in the air, many long-time staff members will likely take the package and leave. Harvard Library cannot afford to lose any more skilled workers. Across the campus, librarians and library assistants report serious quality problems resulting from understaffing and overreliance on poorly-considered cost-cutting measures.

In order to reduce labor costs, HL increasingly sends books and materials to external vendors for outsourced cataloging. The results are alarming: outsourced materials are frequently cataloged with mistakes in title, author, subject, or call number. Since staff members often do not have time or permission to make corrections, the errors have led to thousands of materials becoming undiscoverable. The materials reside physically on shelves or in the Depository, but patrons are unable to locate or retrieve them. Precious books, films, journals, documents, and other treasured resources are being lost.

In all library departments, students and temps provide valuable assistance to overworked permanent staff, but dependency on short-term staff actually creates more work. Although temporary workers seem low-cost, the amount of time permanent staff spend training them on sophisticated tasks, and checking and correcting their work, cancels out most or all of the savings. When a short-term worker leaves and is replaced, this process begins all over again.

Staffing shortages are also affecting circulation, with some departments reporting 30 percent staffing reductions since 2009. For smaller libraries, this often means that there is only one person on duty, and tasks like searching for missing items and preparing materials for transfer necessarily get set aside to help patrons. Staff regularly skip lunch and breaks, or work when they are sick, because there is no one else to cover for them.

Conservation technicians talk about how a deep understanding of their particular library’s collections allows them to know which of the rare, fragile materials need attention. Their unique expertise and cross-departmental relationships often enable them to repair items on the same day the work is requested. But as this skilled group becomes scarce, technicians struggle to maintain high levels of quality.

Librarians and assistants regularly work on projects that span departments and require advanced skills. Often these projects fall outside of official job descriptions, but they are vital to patrons’ efforts to carry out research, develop curricula, teach courses, and diagnose patients. If staffing levels are cut further or jobs are over-simplified, these critical functions will suffer.

No one person can claim to have the authoritative model for the great Library of the 21st century. But there is only one effective approach to such a major reorganizational effort: the process needs to be transparent and participatory. If the cautionary cries of library staff about severe understaffing and quality concerns are not heard and heeded, the Harvard Library Transition will not be successful.

One staff member sums up the urgency of the moment beautifully: “There is such a breadth and depth of knowledge within the library support staff that could easily be used to make the new Harvard Library a reality and a rousing success without cutting a single job. We are already at bare-bones staffing level in my library, and I hear the same thing from everyone I talk to. Don't fire us. You need us. Put us to work, give us new tasks, new ideas, new technology—we are knowledge junkies, we love drowning ourselves in books, media, anything containing the written or spoken word, and we can do anything you throw at us… I enjoy learning. For its own sake. That's what makes a librarian (or in my case, a library paraprofessional) tick. That's what I love. And I'm not alone, not by a long shot. Everyone I work with shares the same passion.”

Carrie Barbash, Alex Chisholm, and Bill Jaeger are organizers with the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, which represents close to half the Library workforce at Harvard. This piece was written with the assistance of unionized library staff and non-unionized librarians from across Harvard.

Library, HUCTW to Negotiate Through “Joint Councils”

By DAN DOU and SAMUEL Y. WEINSTOCK, CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Published: Friday, February 24, 2012

The Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers will form three “joint councils” with Harvard Library management to negotiate the library system’s reorganization, according to a University spokesperson.

HUCTW Director Bill Jaeger said that union leadership proposed the formation of the councils late last week in an effort to improve communication between HUCTW and the University.

“We’ve been frustrated that there wasn’t more serious discussion going on about some of the crucial transition details and that there wasn’t better opportunity for our members to participate in thinking about how to build a greater library,” Jaeger said.

The reorganization has been a point of contention between the University and library workers since Harvard University Library Executive Director Helen Shenton announced on Jan. 19 that the library workforce would be trimmed down as the University moves forward with restructuring its library system.

A University spokesperson said that the three councils will be formed in accordance with the union’s contract with the University and will meet regularly starting in early March and through June 2012.

Joint councils will be formed to represent the Access Services, Technical Services, and Preservation and Digital Services departments, Jaeger said. The councils will be comprised of eight to ten people with equal numbers of union and Harvard Library representatives.

In addition, Jaeger said that HUCTW is currently working on an “open letter” that will be circulated through the Harvard community next week to garner sympathy for the union.

“We think that if faculty and students can see as our members see...they’re going to be concerned about deteriorating quality in the current library,” Jaeger said.

The letter will discuss the union’s concerns that the libraries are already understaffed and that outsourcing of services such as cataloguing might weaken the library system, Jaeger said.

“We want to pay particular attention to the question of what are the minimum staffing levels needed to have a great library,” Jaeger said. “We think that our community is very much in danger of not really having a world-class library.”

On Wednesday, HUCTW leadership sent an email to inform its members of the formation of the joint councils. Library assistant Karen L. O’Brien, a HUCTW representative, expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of the councils, saying that the University has provided the union few details thus far.

O’Brien said that despite numerous attempts from workers to give input to the reorganization, the University has been nonresponsive and “close-mouthed.”

Jeffrey W. Booth, also a library assistant and HUCTW member, said the councils would do nothing to mitigate the threat of layoffs, calling it a “regressive step.”

“They’re extremely ineffectual and often only take up minor issues,” Booth said. “I’m sure Harvard management is so happy.”

Booth, dissatisfied with the formation of councils, said that his union needs to respond more visibly to the University’s recent announcement. He suggested that the union conduct inclusive, membership-wide meetings that could lead to a strike vote, a large rally, or a sit-in of Massachusetts Hall.

“It feels like David and Goliath...but if David didn’t have a slingshot,” Booth said. “The union leadership is not arming the membership.”

Jaeger said that while HUCTW’s ultimate goal is to build a great library, the union is also striving to improve relations between workers and library management.

“We’d like to rebuild some trust and build some better relationships between union members and the key management leaders of the transition,” Jaeger said. “I think a lot of our members are quite deeply frustrated, and union leaders are as well. The state of the library workplace at this point, as far as we can tell, is basically chaos and demoralized disarray.”

—Staff writer Dan Dou can be reached at ddou@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Samuel Y. Weinstock can be reached at ddou@college.harvard.edu.

Feb 9 - Rally Against Layoffs!

NO LAYOFFS! -


5 PM, THURS, FEB 9, Holyoke Ctr.
1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 (next to Au Bon Pain). Redline to Harvard Square.

Who do they think they are?! Even in this bleak economy, Harvard University, a taxfree
‘non-profit’, has managed to retain $32 billion (in addition to other income), yet
it is putting people out of work and plans to lay off more. Layoffs are a burden to our
local economy where people are already struggling and where Harvard has not been
a good neighbor. Harvard is in a privileged financial position where laying off staff
is not necessity but greed. Stand with Harvard workers and community members
against these destructive plans which will devastate many families and hurt the entire
community. Rally to oppose layoffs!

5 PM, THURS, FEB 9, Holyoke Ctr.
1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 (next to Au Bon Pain). Redline to Harvard Square.
Contact harvardnolayoffs@gmail.com for more information.

If you oppose layoffs at Harvard University, please send an email protest.

--------------------------------------Email Harvard Labor Relations------------------------------------
Tell them that when Harvard doesn’t pay taxes and then puts people out of work they are hurting the local economy of your community! Tell them that you support everyone doing their fair share during difficult economic times. Harvard workers greatly appreciate this support. Thank you for sending emails to oppose the University’s plans!

Address emails to: bill_murphy@harvard.edu, (he is the Director of Labor Relations for Harvard University).
cc: harvardnolayoffs@gmail.com

Sample text: I oppose Layoffs in the Harvard Libraries. A University should be protecting these services, and especially one with the enormous resources of Harvard should not be turning people out on the street. Laying off workers when there is still so much money available (in part because of a special tax-free status) is damaging my local economy for no other reason than greed. Please do not do this. The community does not support it.

Proposed Staff Cuts Anger Library Workers

Proposed Staff Cuts Anger Library Workers

By Samuel Y. Weinstock and Justin C. Worland , CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Published: Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The University’s plans to reduce the size of the Harvard University Library workforce drew criticism Tuesday from library workers and the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers. Library officials informed employees of the University's exploration of a range of both voluntary and involuntary options in a series of town hall meetings last Thursday.

“The announcement that the library workforce ‘will be smaller than it is now’ and that some of these potential reductions will be involuntary, combined with the lack of answers to critical questions was alarming and ill-conceived,” read an email to members of HUCTW, which represents many library employees. “For many, the overall effect was panic-inducing.”

The union plans to address the issue by discussing the potential cuts in greater detail with library leaders and meeting with members to assess their reactions, according to the email.

HUCTW Director Bill Jaeger said that his union is concerned primarily with the lack of information provided by the University about the size and nature of the potential layoffs. The presentation of the plans, he said, was “extraordinarily clumsy” and left many major questions unanswered.

Library employees also expressed confusion over the details of the plan. The uncertainty has led many employees to begin speculating on the size of the cuts, according to Karen L. O’Brien, a library assistant.

“All of Harvard Library staff have just effectively been fired,” read one tweet that circulated on Thursday after the first town hall had begun.

Others suggested that the restructuring would require that all library employees reapply to keep their current positions.

The University strongly refuted this statement but recommended that all employees file an Employee Profile “to state job preferences, to articulate skills, and to provide a resume.”

Although he said that the University is currently only providing “vague” explanations, Jaeger is confident that HUCTW will be able to speak with transition leaders. As a part of the union’s contract, Harvard must consult with HUCTW and seriously consider alternative options before laying off a single member, he said.

But HUCTW’s response was insufficient for some union members who gathered on Tuesday afternoon to take a more aggressive stance against the plan for a smaller workforce.

The meeting, which included representatives from the Student Labor Action Movement and Occupy Harvard, concluded with a plan to picket University forums on library reform beginning Wednesday.
For this small, committed group of activists, preparing for a larger campaign would start with reaching out to other employees. Eventually, workers could resort to large demonstrations or another occupation of the campus, said Geoffrey “Geoff” Carens, an assistant librarian and HUCTW member.

“It’s going to get as big as it needs to be,” Carens said. “This is the seed, and we’re hoping for a mighty tree.”

Library employees who attended Tuesday’s meeting expressed frustration with both the plan to cut the workforce and how the University informed employees. At Thursday’s meeting, library officials were unable to answer many of the audience’s questions and did not provide details about the scale of the staff reductions. That information, employees were told, would come in February.

O’Brien said she believes that the University is purposefully stoking fear among the library employees in hopes that they will hurriedly accept unattractive retirement packages.

Regardless of their thoughts about the University’s intentions, many other employees expressed a fear of the upcoming changes.

“I can’t believe I feel as insecure in my job as I did before we had the union,” said Jeffrey Booth, a library assistant who said he has worked at Harvard for 25 years. “We’re already short-staffed. When my friends and coworkers get laid off, I get physically sick. That’s how it affects you.”

The Harvard Library Board, which is responsible for planning the library’s restructuring, met Tuesday to discuss the plan. If approved, it will be considered by University President Drew G. Faust.
The University did not return repeated requests for comment on this article. Harvard Library

Executive Director Helen Shenton did not respond through a spokesperson.

—Staff writer Samuel Y. Weinstock can be reached at sweinstock@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.

Crimson - HUCTW Rallies Against Walker Ban

HUCTW Rallies Against Walker Ban
MERCER R. COOK, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Published: Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Mellow music played in the background as union supporters and their opponents chanted across a divided, police monitored Beacon Street in front of the Massachusetts State House yesterday.

The rally was a reaction to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed ban on collective bargaining in the state. Massachusetts union workers were called upon by their unions to show support for government union members in Wisconsin.

Unions in attendance at yesterday’s rally included the Boston Public School Teachers Union, Service Employees International Union, Iron Workers Local Union No. 7 and Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers.

Read more »

No Layoffs 2010 HUCTW Election Slate

HUCTW ELECTIONS
UNION MEMBERS VOTE TUES., DECEMBER 7!
Go to www.huctw.org for times and places to vote.
Below are personal statements from candidates:

OUR PLATFORM
- No Layoffs and Budget Cuts: Harvard Has the Money!
- Rehire the laid off HUCTW workers: Stop the abuse of term and temp workers! Full union rights for all!
- Fight the targeting of longer service employees + for a real seniority clause in our next contract.
- Higher raises in the next contract! Reverse the trend of declining raises!

GENEVIEVE BUTLER FOR PRESIDENT
“In one year we lost at least 340 HUCTW jobs (7% of our membership), due to layoffs, attrition and
‘voluntary’ retirements. Our current contract features the lowest raises HUCTW members have ever
received. It’s not possible to blame the economy because Harvard recently received a $50 million gift,
purchased an enormous dairy farm in New Zealand for $20.7 million, and currently enjoys a $27 billion
endowment. Please vote BUTLER/ONYEAGORO/THEADORE/KORITZ: We want real
representation, real advocacy and a real union!”

EMEKA ONYEAGORO FOR VICE PRESIDENT
“On December 7, we need to send a strong message that this is a union of the members of HUCTW,
directed, and sustained by all of us and not by the very few on top. I ask for your vote because I
understand what is at stake; we need to strengthen our grievance process, fight the targeting of longer
service employees, stop harassment of union reps, end the abuse of term and temp workers, and reverse
the trend of declining raises.”

DEBORAH THEODORE FOR TREASURER
“I am running for Treasurer because I think our Union needs to be closer to its membership than to
management. I am running because I am tired of seeing the same names shuffling through all of the
executive positions in the Union. I am running because I’ve seen our Union leadership back away too
often from supporting and defending members who have been unfairly targeted for personal, not workrelated
issues.”

JOSHUA KORITZ FOR SECRETARY + UNION REP (FAS SCIENCES REGION)
“I will be a strong advocate for workers, not the boss. I will always fight for workers in any situation.
The job of a Union Rep is to talk to union members, rather than HR. I’ll oppose increased workloads
and push for good working conditions - we as Harvard workers have the right to stand up for our rights,
and the Union exists to protect us.”

HUCTW Election Results

On December 8, 2009, HUCTW workers voted in the few elections that were contested for Union Representative and Executive Board.  The slate that was put together by the No Layoffs Campaign (about which you can still find information about on this blog), did as well as could be expected: Geoff Carens, Emeka Onyeagoro and Phebe Eckfeldt were all elected as Union Reps. (Official list of winning candidates can be found here: http://www.huctw.org/elections/200912_ebd/200912_elections.htm)

Despite a severe lack of resources to campaign with (including a lack of time off), over 200 people voted for one of the No Layoffs Campaign's three candidates for executive board, and while the margins were not close, this shows a significant number of HUCTW members who support these ideas.

This was a huge opportunity to reach out to Harvard workers about the No Layoffs campaign and its firm opposition to layoffs, budget cuts and work load increases.  We spoke to many of our co-workers who shared our concerns.

Emeka Onyeagoro

Emeka Onyeagoro
Candidate for HUCTW
Union Rep, Widener

I'm running for Widener Rep because of my strong commitment to social justice. For nearly two decades I've participated in community-oriented activism and organizing. As a Union Rep, I will keep employees updated about union resources and actions. I'll also do everything I can to help union members who have problems on the job.

Before I joined HUCTW, I was elected Shop Steward here at Harvard, as a Security Officer in SEIU (Service Employees' International Union) local 615. I acted as a source of information, and investigated and handled grievances. I won major, precedent-setting cases, including reversing terminations, and recovered union members' lost wages and vacation days. I fought for and won unemployment benefits and back pay for my fellow workers. I also served on the union negotiating team at our contract talks with management, which achieved seniority rights, much-improved wages, and an effective grievance procedure with arbitration, among other benefits.

During the struggle for our first contract, I helped organize large "living wage" rallies on campus. I worked closely with pro-labor students, and with members of HUCTW who supported the security officers. I maintain those links today, and believe that cross-union solidarity and work with sympathetic student organizations can help HUCTW too! We are always strongest when we stand together.

Recently I have participated in the No Layoffs Campaign, initiated by activists in HUCTW. I feel our union should publicly oppose layoffs. We need to make sure that the laid-off workers get rehired! I also believe we should push strongly for seniority rights, which help prevent age discrimination, and make jobs worth keeping, in our next contract. A no layoffs clause in the contract would be a big step forward, and I will advocate for this. Harvard still has incredible resources and I believe we should bargain from a position of strength, and push for good raises and a cost-of-living adjustment, which we need in such an expensive city.

On December 8, I hope you will consider voting for me, and the other members of the No Layoffs Campaign. Together we will win! Please feel free to contact me at eonyeag@fas.harvard.edu.

Phebe Eckfeldt

PHEBE ECKFELDT
FOR UNION REP
Admissions and Financial Aid

A JOB IS A RIGHT! NO LAYOFFS!

I pledge to give 100% to fighting for your job, your wages, benefits and union rights against Harvard's layoffs, cutbacks, drastically-increased workloads and union-busting. I will fight for a real grievance procedure that includes binding arbitration. The version of a grievance procedure we have now can take forever, and typically doesn't help union members who have problems. Our years on the job need to be honored. I feel we should demand dignity and respect.

Harvard is an educational institution, not a bank! Such figures as Ed Forst from Goldman-Sachs, and Robert Rubin, from Goldman-Sachs and Citigroup, have been appointed to the Harvard Corporation. the big investment banks continue to control Harvard's policies. After very risky investments in hedge funds and private equity, etc., made the endowment soar during economic boom times, Harvard naturally lost money when the market crashed. We must demand that Citigroup and Goldman-Sachs stop gambling away the endowment funds on the stock market and get out of our school. There is still $26 billion in the endowment, but Harvard is crying poor and taking it out on us workers. Money for education, staff, the community and student and faculty services, NOT the banks!

We need an active, responsive union with monthly membership meetings, a monthly bulletin and working committees. An informed membership is a strong membership, and a democratic union is a strong union. Members need a direct voice in the upcoming contract negotiations.

It's time to build a fighting union -- an uncompromising voice for the rank and file.

We need to fight racism, sexism and anti-lesbian/gay/bi/trans bigotry on the job and in the community. AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!

Steve Fake

Steve Fake
Candidate for HUCTW
Union Representative, School of Public Health

Genevieve Butler

Genevieve Butler
Candidate for HUCTW
Union Representative, Social and Political Sciences

Desiree Goodwin

Desiree Goodwin
Candidate for HUCTW Executive Board:
Professional Region

Joshua Koritz

Joshua Koritz
Candidate for HUCTW/AFSCME 3650
FAS Sciences Executive Board
Applied and Physical Sciences Union Representative

Harvard has the money to afford no layoffs, no workload increases and decent wages. I will fight for 6% raises on top of a cost of living ajustment tied to local cost of living indexes.
I want to build open lines of communication and will lend a hand to anyone who has any issue with managers or anyone else. With the continued growth of SEAS, I will work with other union members to address increasing work loads.
I have worked in the Gordon McKay Library in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) for 4 years. In that time, I have attended every possible HUCTW meeting, been active in the No Layoffs Campaign, and have worked on solidarity campaigns with other unions at Harvard and in the greater Boston area.
 

Geoff Carens

GEOFF CARENS
FOR WIDENER
UNION REP + FAS/ARTS
EXECUTIVE BOARD

HUCTW members active in the No Layoffs Campaign are running for Executive Board in three out of five campus regions. We're fielding candidates for Union Representative in several areas. The No Layoffs Campaign seeks to send the message that our union doesn't have to accept job losses, worsening conditions and low raises.

Since the rumors began last spring that union members would face layoffs, we've organized a series of effective rallies that have gotten local, national, and international press. Our actions and the resulting media coverage have put healthy pressure on the university, and may have dissuaded management from making deeper cuts. Serious problems remain, and part of the reason I'm running for office is to call attention to them, and start a dialog about how we can make progress as a union.

Of the (at least) 115 HUCTW members who were laid off this year, only 49 have been placed in regular (not temp) positions. We need a major initiative to get laid-off workers re-hired! Åfter so many employees have retired or lost their jobs, others who remain face increased workloads, often without any additional compensation. Overtime has been eliminated in many departments. Job descriptions have been rewritten. Some HUCTW members have even been "furloughed" --forced to take time off without pay! We need advocates who will represent union members forcefully and effectively. As a Rep, I fight hard, always on the worker's side, and I get good results and win victories.

Harvard will push for concessions in our next contract. I believe we need to counter any pressure to accept less with a strong, determined approach. Our union should publicly oppose layoffs. We should push for good raises, seniority rights, and a cost-of-living adjustment. The Executive Board is the body that currently makes the major decisions on union policy. As a member of the E-Board, I will argue for an assertive approach that puts the needs of union members first.

The E-Board and Rep elections will be held December 8. Between now and then, candidates from the No Layoffs Campaign will be meeting as many union members as we can. To learn more about our effort to strengthen the union, and elect leaders who will be responsive to union members' wants and needs, please contact me anytime at geoff.carens@gmail.com.

-Geoff Carens

article in the Harvard Crimson (11/30/2008) interviewing Dean Smith about Harvard's impending cuts and attacks

News

Union To Meet With Dean Smith

Published On 11/30/2008 11:32:19 PM

By CHRISTIAN B. FLOW
<http://www.thecrimson.com/writer.aspx?ID=1203017> and ESTHER I. YI
<http://www.thecrimson.com/writer.aspx?ID=1204069>

Crimson Staff Writers


In the few days since Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith responded to mounting financial concerns <http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=525249> with a freeze on
staff hiring <http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=525607>, officials of a union representing hundreds of FAS staffers have been working to meet with him to minimize the fallout from the decision.

A representative of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers-a 5800-person organization that draws about a third of its membership from FAS-said yesterday that union
officials were organizing a meeting with Smith for this week, and would look to emphasize the importance of staff support to the educational mission while exploring alternative cost-cutting measures.

"Reducing staffing levels in our view has a direct effect on the quality of education and research," said Bill Jaeger, HUCTW's director. "When you cut staffing levels, you're putting the quality of the educational and research enterprise in some jeopardy."

Jaeger also said that HUCTW representatives would look to clarify the precise nature of the measures FAS is taking. In a letter to faculty and select officials last Monday announcing the
staff hiring freeze, Smith offered little information about the longevity or intensity of the hiring halt, saying only that it would extend to all positions except those deemed "critical."

"We would deem a lot of positions to be critical, so there's a lot that needs to be figured out," Jaeger said.

"I think its a good time for us to be reminding people that the staff are partners with the faculty in carrying out research and delivering education," he said. "And in some areas of the student experience, I don't think its presumptuous to say that the staff play a more hands on role than the faculty do."

Contacted for comment yesterday, Smith wrote in an e-mail that he had already received a message from HUCTW leadership last week, and was "look[ing] forward to speaking directly with their leadership."

But the FAS dean is only one of HUCTW's targets as it looks to shed more light on the implications of the current financial crisis for the University's staff members.

"From our union's point of view, FAS is only one of the schools of the University," Jaeger said. "It's a big and challenging set of financial problems, and it's also one that might be able to be resolved without these cuts, and we're working with University leaders to put that forward."

FAS staff do not appear to be universally alarmed by the recent freeze, which did not affect any currently occupied positions.

Peter Arvidson, who works as a coordinator in the Molecular and Cellular Biology department, wrote in an e-mail that with no layoffs currently on the table, he took Smith's announcement of
the freeze as a reassuring indication that the dean intended to focus on current staff.

"As a staff member I feel you just have to keep doing your job and do it in an excellent manner," Arvidson wrote. "We are all in some way integral to the success of the University. You can
make your staff position 'critical' by doing it well."

Despite Arvidson's optimism, Jaeger did not rule out the specter of future layoffs.

"It's a good time to be in a union," he said, before noting that in such a large institution, it would be foolish to expect to avoid firings entirely.

"There's never been a month in my 20 years at the union where nobody got laid off at the university," he said, referring to normal fluctuations in employment. "Saying 'no layoffs' is
an oversimplification, so we're going to make sure that there is as little impact as possible on our members because of this."

-Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached
at cflow@fas.harvard.edu.
-Staff writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at
estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.



http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=525641