Typesetters Join Printers In Strike for Wage Hikes

Five employees of the Typing and Copy Center went on strike yesterday afternoon, joining the 31 printers from two locals of the Graphic Arts International Union (GAIU) in their four-week old strike against the University.

The employees of the copy center, a division of the University Printing Office, voted 5-1 last Thursday in favor of striking. One typesetter is remaining on the job due to "extenuating circumstances," Deidre Daughty, one of the typesetters picketing outside Holyoke Center, said yesterday.

Unanimous Vote

The previously non-unionized typesetters voted unanimously on April 24 to join Local 300, one of the two striking printers' locals. The National Labor Relations Board certified their election to the local on May 2.

Daughty said that the typesetters are demanding a larger wage hike than the 5.9-per-cent increase plus $10 a week sought by the printers.

"They are further behind the printers in pay, and their demands are above and beyond those of the printers," Paul Golden, vice president of Local 300, said yesterday.

Neither Golden nor the typesetters would say exactly what wage increase the typesetters are seeking. John B. Butler, director of personnel, said yesterday that he has not been contacted by the union with regard to the typesetters' strike.

Butler said that he has no plans for hiring other typesetters to work for the copy center during the strike. The copy center does composition work for the Harvard University Gazette and for many departments in the University.

"The work will get done--somehow," Carl W. Getz, director of the University Printing Office, said yesterday. Getz said that the office's management personnel will now typeset for the copy center.

Deane W. Lord, director of the University News Office and editor of the Gazette, said yesterday, "The Gazette will be published, if at all possible." She said she "will not speculate" on what will be done "until we find a way."

She said special efforts would be made to publish the Calendar of Events, which appears in each week's Gazette, even if the entire paper cannot be published.

Golden said yesterday that the GAIU will not direct the members of Local 300 at Harwich Lithographers, the company that prints the Gazette, to stop printing the newspaper during the typesetter's strike.

"We don't want to bite off more than we can chew by getting involved in a secondary boycott," he said. Golden said, however, he will direct Harwich Lithographers to drop the Union insignia from the Gazette during the strike.