Union Tries to Go Official

The Graduate Student and Teaching Fellow Union has decided to tackle the Federal bureaucracy in an attempt to penetrate the Harvard bureaucracy.

The Union steering committee decided at its meeting this week to seek recognition from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as the sole bargaining agent for teaching fellows here.

The first step in the time-consuming process is to collect pledges from at least 30 per cent of the teaching fellows authorizing the Union to act for them. Approximately 400 pledges would be needed from Harvard teaching fellows.

The disadvantage of applying for recognition as an employee union--in fact, the only kind of union protected by law--is that it divides the graduate student union. However, members of the steering committee said that the Union, if recognized, would use the existing labor laws for the benefit and protection of all Union members.

The advantage of gaining NLRB recognition is that several legal obligations would be placed upon the University, including obligations to respond to all Union proposals and to give the Union access to budgetary and other information needed by the Union to make intelligent bargaining proposals.

The collection of authorization pledges, which will be the Union's major activity during the weeks before April 19, the date of the next Union meeting, is being carried on in conjunction with a membership drive. Union membership, which includes students who have paid dues or signed strike pledges, stands at over 700.

After the pledges are filed along with the petition for recognition, the NLRB will set up an election in which voters choose which one of one or more unions they want to represent them.

Since only a simple majority of the ballots cast is all that is needed for recognition, steering committee members believe recognition to be "within our reach."