Four Carpenters Comply With Reassignment Order

Four Buildings & Grounds (B&G) carpenters reported to work yesterday to assume painting jobs, complying with the University's latest reassignment order, Edward W. Powers, associate general counsel for employee relations, said yesterday.

The workers' compliance with the reassignment order averted what officials of Carpenters' Local 40, the local which represents the B&G Carpenters, said Sunday could have been another confrontation over the University's policy of reassigning the carpenters across trade lines.

James P. Costello, general agent for Local 40, declined to comment yesterday on the reasons for the workers' decision to report for work. He said the issue is part of "a very delicate situation" in negotiations between the union and the University.

No Cash

Last Friday, the University notified the four carpenters that they would be suspended without pay if they did not comply with yesterday's reassignment order.

Powers said negotiations between Harvard and the Maintainance Trades Council (MTC) of Boston, which represents the 300 B&G maintenance workers who participated in a three-day walkout that ended March 24, will continue this week in an attempt to "resolve all the issues."

Local 40, one of the member locals of the MTC, walked out March 21 to protest the University's reassignment of its carpenters to jobs outside the local's craft. More than 200 other B&G employees, also MTC members, joined the strike in support of the carpenters.

The current negotiations deal with the reassignment question and other issues. However, officials of both the University and the union declined to comment yesterday on the specifics of the talks while the negotiations are in progress.

"The Parties have to work these issues across the bargaining tables," Powers said, adding that there were some scheduling problems delaying the negotiations. He said, however, that the talks will continue some time this week.