Q: When Is a Carpenter Not a Carpenter?

Go up to a carpenter and ask him what kind of work he likes to do best.

Odds are he'll say he likes being a carpenter. At least, he probably won't say he'd rather be a painter, or a roofer, or a lamper.

That's the answer the members of Carpenter's Local 40 had for Harvard this week when administrators in the Department of Buildings and Grounds (B&G)--maintaining they had no work for the carpenters--reassigned five union members to different jobs. The carpenters told Harvard what to do with the reassignments, and promptly went out on strike--triggering a chain reaction among all Harvard employees in the building trades.

Late Monday night, B&G's building trades workers, who are members of the Maintenance Trades Council of Boston, voted to support the strike. When work started on Tuesday. B&G was operating with 300 fewer employees than normal.

Throughout the week, the striking workers have picketed different sites around the University, and have found the front of Holyoke Center the most popular.

The striking workers have contended that Harvard is contracting out carpentry work, which B&G workers should be doing, to outside firms. This, they say, caused the work shortages.

Harvard officials have denied that any "significant" outside contracts have been made, except for "major construction and rennovation jobs which are not traditionally performed by the B&G carpenters."

The University made two proposals to the union Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, but James P. Costello, general agent for Local 40, said the union membership rejected both offers in early-morning meetings.

However, Costello said yesterday that he was "anticipating a meeting between the union and the University tomorrow." Neither he nor Edward W. Powers, associate general cousel for employee relations, would comment on the time or specifics of the meeting.

Complicating the strike issue is the University's contention that the strike is illegal. Under the present agreement between Harvard and the Trades Council, the union must give the University 30 days prior notice before causing any "direct or indirect interference with the University's operations."

Powers said the strike is "clearly illegal," adding that it is a "very real possibility" that the University would sue the unions involved for "damages to the University resulting from the strike."

He said the documents needed to file suit were ready yesterday, but added that no final decision would be made on whether or not to go to court until today or Monday.

So as the strike continued into its third day, B&G maintained operations on almost exclusively an emergency-necessity basis. Heating, lighting, and other essential services were being provided by supervisory personnel and a few non-striking employees, but most of the workers were still out marching.