Med Area Workers Will Petition NLRB For Union Election

The Medical Area Employees Organizing Committee voted unanimously at a membership meeting last Thursday to file a request with the National Labor Relations Board on February 18 for permission to hold a union election.

The Organizing Committee, which affiliated itself with District 65 of the Distributive Workers of America last spring, represents clerical and technical personnel at the Medical School, Dental School, School of Public Health and at Countway Library.

A spokesman for the Organizing Committee. Leslie Sullivan, said Thursday that over 50 per cent of the 800 Medical Area employees have signed District 65 membership cards although the NLRB only requires that 30 per cent sign in order to hold an election.

The University has maintained since May, when the Organizing Committee bean circulating petitions, that the Medical Area is not an appropriate unit for a union, since it excludes Harvard employees based in Cambridge who also do clerical and technical work.

Unless its position changes, the University will challenge the Medical Area employees right to hold a union election, when the Organizing Committee files its request with the NLRB.

The NLRB will then hold hearings to determine whether the Medical Area is in fact an appropriate unit.

John B. Butler, director of personnel, said yesterday. "There has been no change in the University's position that this is not an appropriate unit." He added "If the matter goes to the NLRB as it should, the University will state its case."

The Organizing Committee also approved the contents of a letter sent on January 27 from Sullivan to Robert Ebert, dean of the Medical School, proposing a meeting between the Organizing Committee and the Medical Area deans on February 2.

Sullivan said yesterday that Ebert has not yet responded to the proposal. In the letter, she requested a response by February 4