Employees Union Ends Ten Tough Years of Battle for Higher Wages

Despite a tempestuous career marked by frequent American Federation of Labor raids and the oft-repeated charge that it is a "company union," the Harvard University Employees Representative Association will celebrate its tenth birthday in January.

Now in the midst of a drive to obtain a 15 cent an hour wage increase for University-employed maids and janitors, H.U.E.R.A. points with pride to the gains it has won for such groups as the University Police.

According to union figures, the Yard cops now get $55.75 a week, which makes them the third highest paid police force in the country, with only the New York and Cambridge municipal departments ahead of them.

With respect to other groups, however, H.U.E.H.A.'s record is more in doubt. Mechanics earn $1.50 an hour, admittedly less than outside workers in the same classification, but they have a guarantee of year-round work.

H.U.E.R.A. includes almost all kinds of hourly workers, except for office workers. Asked whether the union was planning a drive to organize them, Daniel G. Mulvihill, now in his sixth term as H.U.E.R.A. president, declined to comment, explaining that it would be "poor strategy" to disclose the union's plans.

Slight Membership Decline

In membership, the union has shown a slight decline over the years. It now boasts 1,006 members who faithfully pay their 25 cents a month dues, as opposed to a total membership on March 1, 1938, 41 days after its organization, of 1,100. Of the 1,100, however, some 250 had not yet paid their dues.

The union was first organized on January 19, 1938, when 400 service employees met to form a group independent of the A.F. of L., which at that time had organized a majority of the dining hall workers and was moving in on other University workers. The C.I.O. also had taken a flyer at unionizing Harvard employees, but made little progress.

Almost as soon as H.U.E.R.A. was formed, the A. F. of L. charged that it was receiving University support. College officials denied this, and, following student protests, posted placards telling employees that the University was taking a neutral stand in the inter-union contest.

Later investigation by the state Labor Relations Board belied the College's assertion, for it disclosed that the University employed public accountants to certify H.U.E.R.A. membership cards and check them with payrolls.

Crisis

Matters reached a head when H.U.E.R.A. demanded sole bargaining rights for maids and maintenance men, and the A. F. of L. threatened a strike to halt H.U.E.R.A.'s advance. In the meantime, the A. F. of L. had won preferential bargaining rights in the Dining Halls department, and the University had been compelled to grant several wage increases because of the A.F. of L.'s rising pressure.

To forestall a strike, the entire issue was brought before the State Labor Relations Board, which ordered that an election be held in each of the University's departments.

Amid charges that the College had employed "intimidation" and "coercion" in H.U.E.R.A.'s behalf, the balloting was hold, and H.U.E.R.A. won handily in all but the dining hall unit. Following this bad defeat, the A. F. of L. decided to withdraw the charges it had preferred with the Labor Board charging the University with "unfair labor practices."

The A. F. of L. has made several attempts during the years to re-enter the Harvard scene, but each time B.U.E.R.A. has repulsed it.

Friendly Relations

H.U.E.R.A.'s policy has always been one of friendly relations with the College, Aldrich Durant '02, the University's business manager, traditionally speaks at the annual swearing-in of H.U.E.R.A.'s officers and executive board.

Mulvihill, who is a University night watchman himself, always keeps H.U.E.R.A.'s Massachusetts Avenue office open to workers with grievances, but believes that most of them are based on employee misinformation. "I just show them the contract," he says, "and they see that the University has done nothing wrong."