AFL-CIO Will Not Withdraw From HTUP

Organized labor will continue to participate in a Harvard training program for future union leaders, national union officials said last week. Their participation was threatened by the University's opposition to the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW).

Gerald R. McEntee, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), HUCTW's national affiliate, said that the AFL-CIO would continue to take part in the program because of President Bok's decision not to appeal an administrative judge's ruling upholding last May's union victory.

After HUCTW narrowly won a vote to unionize the University's 3400 support staff, Harvard charged the union with unfair labor practices and asked the NLRB to overturn the vote.

Last September top union officials met with Bok and told him that they did not think they could support a training program at a University "which is so clearly anti-union."

In an interview last week, Bok said that the program would have been suspended for a year if the University continued to challenge the election.

Now that the University has recognized the union, the 10-week program will get underway as scheduled in January, Bok said. Bok said that he was confident that AFL-CIO affiliates would help recruit students as they have in the past.