Both Sides Settled For Less

When exams ended in the beginning of June the University and 36 Harvard printers and typesetters were still locked in a two-month-long strike, far apart on the crucial issue of wages.

The strike went on for almost two more months, finally ending on July 25 after a series of marathon negotiations and shifting wage offers on both sides. At Commencement time, the University was offering a two-year contract to the printers, with pay hikes of 5.9 per cent in the first year and slightly more in the second, while the printers wanted a one-year pact with 10-to-14-per-cent raises.

In the course of four negotiating sessions after Commencement, the printers agreed to the two-year contract with a 5.9-per-cent first-year pay increase, and after considerable haggling over the second-year raise both sides finally settled on 10 per cent for the last 15 months of the contract.

Both sides agreed that the settlement to Harvard's third and longest strike ever was a compromise, representing substantial concessions by both the University and the printers.

Almost all the printers are back at work now, but the settlement could have a significant effect on the kinds of wage demands Harvard's other labor unions could make in the future.