Harvard Pro Joins Battle Over UFW Picket Lines

The Harvard Provision Co. yesterday filed a request for an injunction against the picketing which has taken place outside the store every weekend since September.

Harvard Provision thus joined the C. Pappas distributing company and the Avenue Liquor Mart of Fresh Pond, which both filed similar requests last week before the Suffolk County Superior Court.

A three-judge pretrial hearing scheduled for yesterday afternoon was rescheduled for 11 a.m. tommorrow, apparently to allow the defense time to consider the new suit.

Last Tuesday, C. Pappas Co., the Boston-area distributor of Gallo wines, and the Avenue Liquor Mart of Fresh Pond filed complaints against the United Farm Workers and the Harvard Boycott Support Committee, charging they are conducting an illegal boycott in their attempts to enforce the nationwide, UFW-sponsored boycott of Gallo wines.

The complaint filed by the Provision Co. was filed too late in the day to be made available to the public. But Alan Schlosser, lawyer for the UFW, and Nick Jones, UFW's coordinator for the northeast, are defendants in the new suit.

Mary M. Lassen '75, a member of the Support Committee, is a defendant in the Pappas and Avenue suits. She said last night she has not received notification that she has been named in the Harvard Provision suit.

Legal Counsel

Lassen said last night that she has retained legal counsel to represent her in the two suits in which she has been named.

A spokesman for the Provision Co. management refused to comment on the new suit last night.

Of the two earlier suits, the one filed by Pappas would have the greater effect, stopping picketers at all the stores Pappas serves. The suits seek only to keep the UFW and its supporters from picketing and do not include requests for damage payments.

The Pappas complaint lists 13 different charges against picketers in the Greater Boston area, including physical assault, breaking windows, use of obscenities and "chanting in unison."

When the Pappas suit was filed, Jones said that he had visited every picketing site and found not a single incident of violence or illegality.

Pappas also claimed that police officers "have been unable to furnish adequate protection" at the picketing sites. At the Harvard Provision, though, Cambridge policemen have been serving detail duty during every picket and have not had to interfere with the UFW or the Boycott Support Committee.