Waitresses' Union Probably Will Agree On College Plan

Asserting that he had not as yet been informed of the proposed substitution of students for some of the waitresses in the House dining halls, Joseph Stephani, head of the A. F. of L. affiliated Cooks' and Pastry Cooks' Association, Local No. 106, and the Waitresses Union, Local No. 112, of Which all Harvard's 500 waitresses and kitchen helpers are members, revealed that the union is at present in the midst of negotiations for a renewal of the present agreement with the University which expires in June.

As a result of the war, Stephani said the union has already begun to experience some difficulty in providing the College with enough waitresses in view of the higher wages paid for war work and of other opportunities opening up this year.

New Agreement Probable

"We will probably reach some agreement with the University now, but the union will insist on reinstating waitresses as in the past at the end of the war," the organizer said.

The present University agreement with the unions was reached in the spring of 1941 and incorporating explicitly the understanding, which prior to that had been implicit for years, that the College could at any time put students to work in the dining halls as a means of defraying part of their expenses. This arrangement is due to come up for revision in June.

Union Strike in 1940

In 1940, however, when the Business School proposed to lay off ten waitresses and replace them by students as an economy move, the union threatened a strike as it had once before in the spring of 1939, when last-minute concessions by the University prevented a general strike of all dining hall employees.

According to the terms of the present contract, the University agreed to require all employees to join the union, to hire all its employees through the union if the latter is able to fill the position within 48 hours to the satisfaction of the University, and in case the University employs a non union member he must join the union within 21 days, whereas students have a nonunion status.