Negotiations Not That Simple

We share the hope expressed in your Decmber 9 staff editorial ("A Stocking Stuffer") for prompt agreement on a new three-year contract between the University and the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW). Our employees deserve raises, and we would like to conclude the contract negotiations so we can provide fair raises to the approximately 3,500 employees affected.

Your staff editorial, however, misstates at least two critical facts. First, you assert that HUCTW employees have been "working three years without any salary increases." In fact, under the HUCTW agreement that took effect in July 1989, total average salary increases exceeded 25 percent over the three-year term of the agreement, and thus provided HUCTW employees with substantial economic progress.

Second, your editorial seriously misstates the gap between the parties' positions in the present negotiations for a three-year agreement. You assert that "the dollar amount that is stalling contract negotiations is $123,000 per year." Unfortunately, that is not the case. Although the parties have considerably narrowed the gap with regard to wages for the first year of the new contract, substantial differences remain with regard to the wage package for the full three-year term of the contract.

We are eager to reach agreement with HUCTW, and we hope a resolution will come soon. John H. Shattuck   Vice President For Governmental, Community and Public Affairs