'Cliffe Improves Offer; Strike Still Uncertain

The Radcliffe College Council yesterday modified the wage increases being offered to members of Local 254 of the Building Services Union.

"The new offer is greater than we had agreed to before, but less than the Union had originally demanded," J. Boyd Britton, vice-president of Radcliffe and the College's negotiator, said last night.

Britton met with Union representatives yesterday afternoon and today. The College's modified proposal will be brought before Union members for a vote.

Wage increases are being offered to each of the three negotiating groups separately, Britton said, and include:

* A raise of 20 cents an hour for the 57 maintenance workers, beginning retroactively as of July 1, and an additional 15 cents an hour next year. This puts salaries for these employees at $2.65 an hour now and $2.80 in July 1969, exceeding both the $2.60 and $2.75 offered at Harvard, and the $2.63 and $2.77 at M.I.T. The Union had demanded $3.00 an hour.

* A raise of 15 cents now and 15 cents next year for the 70 accomodators, or dorm maids, putting their salaries at $1.99 and $2.14. These figures are within one cent of Union demands.

* A raise of 15 cents now and 15 next year for the 22 serving ladies who would then receive $1.73 immediately and $1.88 next July. While this is lower than the the $1.94 and $2.06 offered by Harvard, Britton said, Radeliffe workers receive five weeks paid vacation while Harvard workers get only two.

"If this plan is accepted it certainly doesn't look as though student fees are going down," Britton said. He added that the new terms would mean an increase of at least $25 per student "over and above the five per cent increase we already had in the budget."

"This is our final offer," Britton said. 'If the Union won't accept it, I presume there will be a strike."

Edward T. Sullivan, negotiator for the Union, could not be reached for comment