AFL Protests Employee Ballots In Close Jurisdictional Election

The AFL has protested two votes cast in Tuesday's election to decide union representation for employees of the Harvard Athletic Association, and a Massachusetts Labor Board Relations Board hearing will be necessary to decide the outcome of the election.

Employees favored Local 254 of the AFL Building Service Employees' International Union, 17 to 16, over the Harvard University Employees' Representative Association, an independent union, which has represented employee groups here since 1938.

"We have breached the ivy-covered walls at last," said Edward Sullivan, president of the AFL local, who expressed confidence that the protest would be upheld. The union has attempted to organize H.U.E.R.A. members several times during the past five years.

Sullivan announced that the AFL would file petitions Tuesday asking that elections be held to determine jurisdiction for University janitors and bakery employees, who are now members of H.U.E.R.A. units. Sullivan added that the union had dropped its attempt to organize the maids' unit.