Reinstate Trudel

HARVARD'S HANDLING of its investigation into the firing of a University copy services employee last month, allegedly for his unionizing activity, is yet another deplorable example of the University's continued recalcitrance in the face of unionizing drives.

Working conditions in the copy division, according to copy service employees and union attorneys, have been intolerable; worker-supervisor tension has increased considerably over the past few years, and workers say they find themselves in constant danger of losing their jobs.

The Trudel case, in short, only exacerbates the already difficult situation which exists in the copy services.

Edward W. Powers, director of employee relations, this week completed a preliminary investigation into Trudel's firing, and announced that he found no signs that Trudel was fired for any reasons other than the "poor performance of job" his supervisor officially cited. But Powers, bound by University policy, could only speak with Trudel's immediate superiors; by his own admission, a more extensive inquiry is still in order.

District 65 last week filed an unfair labor practices charge on Trudel's behalf with the National Labor Relations Board. Harvard has apparently chosen to fight out the Trudel case in the NLRB rather than internally. Powers turned the investigation over to Ropes and Gray, Harvard's law firm, with this decision in mind.

Earlier this week, Trudel was also informed that he can file a grievance with the University concerning his firing. Trudel has said he will file the grievance, but like Harvard, he and his attorneys seem to be placing their ultimate faith in the NLRB investigation.

But neither Harvard nor its workers rely on the NLRB as a convenient way of disposing of union and worker grievances. In the long run, the University must improve its internal investigatory processes and some of its more questionable hiring and dismissal policies if it is to avoid drawn-out and often embarrassing battles in the NLRB.

Meanwhile, Harvard should reinstate Trudel immediately, and should withdraw its opposition to the unfair labor practices charge until it has taken both Trudel's and his co-workers' depositions. The University should complete a fulland open investigation of the matter before the case is remanded to the NLRB.

Eventually, the university must learn it cannot continue to single out for punishment individuals interested in improving the lot of their fellow workers through organizing drives or union activity.