Getz Sends 700 Solicitations, Trying to Regain Printing Work

The director of the University Printing Office yesterday sent 700 soliciting letters throughout the University in an effort to regain some of the business the Printing Office lost while 31 of its printers were out on a three-month strike that ended last week.

Carl W. Getz Jr. also wrote letters yesterday to all Printing Office employees in order, he said, to "boost morale" in the wake of the strike.

Getz and an official of the union for the striking printers agreed yesterday that the Printing Office's post-strike period of readjustment is running much more smoothly now than it did the last time the printers went out on strike, in 1967.

Internal Friction

After the 1967 strike there was some "friction," Getz said, between members of the Graphic Arts International Union, which had struck, and the Printing Office's other union, the Boston Typographical Union, which had not.

This year, however, Getz said there is "no problem at all" in relations between GAIU and BTU members.

'Scabs'

Paul S. Golden, vice president of one of the two GAIU locals that went out on strike, said yesterday that while BTU members at the Printing Office "are in my opinion scabs," the GAIU's attitude is that "the crisis has passed and let's get back to work."

John B. Butler, director of Personnel, and William N. Mullins, manager of employee relations, said after the printers ended Harvard's longest strike last week that bitterness between GAIU and BTU members could make this week a difficult one at the Printing Office.

The Printing Office rehired two of the striking printers last Friday, the day after the strike ended, and by Wednesday 20 of the 36 striking printers and typesetters were back at work.

As part of the settlement between GAIU and the University, Harvard agreed to rehire at least 18 of the striking workers by Wednesday.

Low Volume

Getz said the workers who were on strike are now doing about half of the volume of printing they were doing before the strike, and that the Printing Office has to "sell itself within the University" in order to get back to a normal volume of work.