Issues, not Power

WHAT IF we held a meeting and nobody came? That was a question that union organizers could have asked one night before the break, when all of 12 people showed up to attend a gathering entitled "There is Power in a Union: A Forum on Harvard, Unions, and You."

Although I am strongly critical of the union campaign at Harvard, I was nonetheless quite disappointed to see that this meeting drew such a small audience. The union has important things to say, and students should listen to its views, for it offers an important perspective on the present drive.

The union claims correctly that several crucial issues are involved. According to Kris Rondeau, an organizer for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW), they include pay equity, child care programs, parental leave, career advancement and job flexiblity programs. Despite my opposition to the union, I too support each of these programs.

But as Rondeau stated at the meeting, the HUCTW "hasn't organized [this campaign] around the issues." Instead, she said, the union has made this campaign one of "power and participation."

Rondeau said that the union wasn't pushing specific programs at this stage of the organizing drive "because [Harvard] is wealthy enough to give us anything we ask for." And, of course, the union wants more than just pay equity and parental leave.

"What it comes down to is an issue of power," said Harvard Professor Eric Arnesen at the meeting. So if workers vote to create a union, it will be to a large extent the union which will hold sway over their jobs and their lives. If on the other hand, they vote to oppose the union, then the University will hold this power.

But for right now, for a short while at least, it is the workers themselves, and the rest of the Harvard community, who hold the power. We have the power to choose the future of the University, and to choose who will control it.

Who will be the best advocate for Harvard's workers? The University has certainly not shown itself to be a perfect employer. While members of the corporation will doubtless point out that Harvard has always followed federal guidelines for fair practices in employment, members of the HUCTW are equally quick to point out that the Corporation has always taken its best advantage of whatever rather "grey" areas of the law it could find.

But does that mean that the union will be a better representative of Harvard's workers? I'm not convinced and am especially concerned because, even at the present stage of the unionizing campaign, organizers openly state that they are more concerned with the power of the union than with the actual issues that are at stake.

Admittedly, to be effective, a union must wield some amount of power. But I hope that the union organizers also realize that the union's first and foremost concern must be the employees.

AT THE MOMENT, the union is persisting in its drive to keep Harvard from launching an anti-union campaign, circulating petitions asking the University to remain neutral.

This is an absurd proposition. Harvard cannot be expected to remain neutral on this issue, especially one which will affect every aspect of the University. It has a right and a responsibility to present its point of view to the public, just as the union has a right and a responsibility to express its arguments.

The union complains that Harvard, with all of its vast resources, has an unfair advantage in the campaign. Union organizers complain that the University is simply too powerful for the union to fight.

It's unfortunate that the union views the campaign as nothing more than a power struggle, rather than an opportunity to make some headway on the real issues that do exist in this dispute. If the union would concentrate on the issues, then it might have a better cause to champion. And it might be more successful in its cause as well.

The union, after all, is designed at least in theory to represent the workers. It sets out, according to Rondeau, to ensure that workers are respected as individuals.

As such, the union should respect its workers by letting them make their own choices, based on a wide range of information. If the union wants power for Harvard's workers (and not simply for itself) then it should give the workers the power to make their own decisions after hearing all sides of the issues.

Other members of the Harvard community should be equally concerned with these issues. Every student should make an effort to listen to all the arguments and issues involved. Workplace democracy, like political democracy, works best in a thoroughly informed community.