HUERA May Strike for 10-Cent Increase in Pay

Daniel G. Mulvihill, president of the Harvard University Employees' Representative Association, will announce today whether or not University employees will go on strike to back up their demands for a ten-cent-as-hour cost-of-living wage increase.

The demand was presented in a letter to University officials on September 26. Last Friday, the University told Mulvihill that it could not agree to an increase, John W. Teele, Director of Personnel, said last night. "As far as I know, there are no plans for a new meeting," Teele added.

A one-year contract, covering janitors, maids, University police, and certain other workers, was signed between the H.U.E.R.A. and the University last July. That contract cut down the work week for maids and police from five and a half to five days, and for janitors from six to five and a half, with increases in hourly pay to keep take-home wages constant.

The Elevator Clause

There is a clause in the contract authorizing immediate opening of wage talks when the cost of living index reaches 165. That index, as figured by the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Industries, stood at 163.6 on October 15, as compared with 163.2 on September 15 and 160 when the contract was signed.

In his letter, Mulvihill had cited the possibility of a government wage freeze asking for immediate consideration of an increase.

If the union decided to go on strike, it would probably not have to go through the procedures set up by the Taft-Hartley Act since it is unlikely that the University is covered by that act, Teele reported. An official of the National Labor Relations Board explained that the law applied only to employers engaged in interstate commerce, and that he knew of no cases in which the act had been applied to universities.

Several janitors revealed yesterday that they had heard rumors about an impending strike, but that there had been no official announcement. They expect a union meeting sometime during next week to discuss the whole subject of wages.