It's About Time

NOW THE UAW has decided to leave Harvard, the drive to organize the University's clerical and technical staff can go on under the aegis of a single group--the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW). Instead of two unions competing for the allegiance of University employees, there is one. This should make it dramatically easier for organizers to win the majority support necessary for the union to gain recognition at Harvard's bargaining table.

What's remarkable about the United Auto Workers' decision to pull out is just how long it was in coming. The UAW has not had any significant support base at Harvard since the HUCTW split from its ranks to form an independent union two years ago. While the mostly volunteer HUCTW organizers have been holding frequent meetings with employees, the all-paid UAW staffers have been largely invisible.

The UAW said it was interested in organizing the employees, but the biggest effect of its presence here has been to confuse the campaign for unionization. Nothing can be more effective in stopping unionization at Harvard than divisions among the organizers themselves. Instead of pulling out when it became clear that the HUCTW was making inroads, the UAW stubbornly remained.

The UAW's obstinance became all the more clear after the grassroots HUCTW affiliated with American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) last year. Any claim the UAW could have made to better resources and funding disappeared with the HUCTW-AFSCME alliance.

The battle resolved itself into a needless power struggle not over unionization, but over prestige. It finally took negotiations between the presidents of the two unions last week to get the UAW out of Cambridge.

It is unfortunate that the drive for unionization has been marred by so much infighting. And while the organizing effort is likely to go on well into next year, the long overdue departure of the UAW will remove a key obstacle. Harvard's 4000 secretaries and lab assistants deserve a union. Hopefully, the HUCTW will now be able to marshall the support to represent them.