Harvard Club, Employees Reach Pact

Waiters, bartenders and busboys at the Harvard Club of Boston reached a tentative last-minute settlement with management late Wednesday, averting a job action that might have halted food service at the Club's two branches.

About 120 members of Local 26 of the AFL-CIO Restaurant Institutional Employees and Bartenders Union voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to strike if an agreement could not be reached. The approximately 120 union members at the Club are expected to ratify the contract in a vote today, union officials said.

Workers some of whom currently earn the minimum wage, will receive a 15 per cent salary increase in the first year of a three-year pact, and cost of living increases in the following two years under the pact.

"I feel good about it and hope our membership ratifies it." Domenic Bozzotto, president of Local 26, said yesterday, adding. "Not many people get the cost of living provision anymore, so I think it's a good deal."

"We worked together and I think we have a fair settlement." Richard Vitale, general manager of the club, said yesterday.

Union officials, who began negotiations asking for a 25-per cent raise in the first year and 15-per-cent in the second, appeared satisfied with several non-salary concessions be management. Those included.

*An extra holiday each year, bringing the annual total to 13;

*The addition of total coverage for eye surgery and eveglasses in Club feunded medical plan; and

*A lowering of eligibility standards for participation in the medical plan. The Club will now pay for 100 per cent coverage for any employee who works more than 24 hours per week. Formerly, the Club fully covered only employees who worked 40 hours per week.

The Club also agreed that students who work for the club must belong to the union. Only about 10 or 15 students currently work at the Club.

Management did not vield on two major union demands. First, the proceeds of a 15-per-cent surcharge added to all bulls at the Club will still go only to the Club--not to the union membership. Tipping will remain prohibited. And pension benefits--which give most workers $4 per month for each year worked at the Club--will remain unchanged.

"We were also hoping to get dental coverage." Steve Jacksa, an employee and negotiator for the union, said yesterday, adding. "But we'll just have to work on getting some of those other things in the future."

Local 26, which also represents Har- yard's dining hall workers, represents employees at both Harvard Clubs in Boston--the downtown clubhouse at One Federal Street and the main clubhouse at 374 Commonwealth Ave.

In the last contract settlement between the union and the Club, the lowest-paid workers were to receive a $3.35-an-hour wage. But after the federal minimum wage was raised to $3.35-an-hour earlier this year, management gave the workers the additional two cents an hour.

Bozzotto and his union state were elected to head the union in April partly because of worker dissatisfaction with the low wage settlement in the last negotiations, union officials said.

"The people I have in this club I'm very proud of," Vitale said. "There are no bad feelings on either end.