At The Table

Representatives of Harvard and the University's food service workers agreed yesterday to a compromise format for their upcoming contract renewal talks and set a date for their upcoming contract renewal talks and set a date for their opening session.

The agreement, reached with the help of a federal mediator ends a three-week impasse over whether the talks would be open to the press and public.

But Domenic M. Bozzotto, president of the food service workers union, and chief Harvard labor negotiator Edward W. Powers interpreted the agreement in opposite ways yesterday.

Under the compromise format, subcommittees of the University and union bargaining groups will meet in a closed session. The subcommittees must be composed of "bona fide" represenatives of the bargaining groups, Powers reported.

Bozzotto said that the bargaining groups, officially called negotiating committees, could choose anyone they wished to represent the groups, including members of the press and public. He declined to speculate on whether the union bargaining group would choose members of the public to represent it.

The union's negotiating committee is composed of 31 Harvard food service workers and the union's officers.

Powers said that only union members and officers were "bona fide" represenatives of the union's bargaining group, however.

Powers added that he would not withdraw from the negotiations because of this dispute, but he released to say what he would do if the committee chose members of the public to represent "If he says he's reserving the right to do something and doesn't do it, fine," Powers said.

Powers has previously said he will not negotiate of the contract talks are open to the public of press, claiming this would prevent them from being "open and frank."

The dinning hall workers three-year contract with the University expires June 19.