Harvard's Employees Exploited

If Harvard had any inclination to take advantage of its workers, their unions would protect them, right?

Not in the case of Local 254 of the Service Employees International, which represents University security guards, cleaners and parking attendants.

Take Pedro, for example. Five days a week, Pedro, who won't let his last name be used because he fears retaliation from both his bosses and his union, does cleaning work on campus for Boston-based Unicco. That should leave him two days off, but he has to supplement that income, he says, in order to support his children.

So instead of resting, Pedro does work for Prospect Cleaners, also on campus. The cleaners want him at Harvard because he knows the campus and because, except for a couple of times when his kids were sick, he has never missed a day of work. Prospect and Unicco's workers are also both in the same union.

With the same union representing Pedro in both jobs, he thought he'd get overtime pay for the two extra days he works each week. But he was wrong. Pedro has come to realize that he's been taken in by Local 254.

He's not the first worker to be exploited by this union.

Those involved in campus labor relations have seen Local 254's handiwork before. This was the union that failed to pursue claims by security guards who said they were being discriminated against.

This is the union that is allowing private companies to replace Harvard's own cleaning operation. Workers may lose, but the union doesn't. 254 represents not only the in-house cleaners but also the people who mop the floors for the private companies.

This is also the union that last fall negotiated a worse deal for its members on benefits co-payments than is required by contract. Members say 254's contract requires that they don't have to pay more than any other union; their $10 co-payments are more than those for at least one other Harvard union, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW).

This is the union that conspired with the director of security at the Fogg Art Museum to force older workers out (in some cases using wildly exaggerated claims of disciplinary wrongdoing) and to replace them with younger, cheaper, more malleable meat.

Meat is the appropriate word, because now, when the Fogg hires new guards, their contracts say they're 24 hour-per-week employees. Of course, they'll work 40 hours and not be paid overtime for the extra duty. Complain to the union? Guess again. There's no elected union steward. Local 254 actually helped set up the arrangement.

"We're not getting good representation right now," says one veteran Harvard employee who has been active in the union. Adds a former union official, "254, for some reason, refuses to defend the people it represents."

Officials at the union, including business agent Kathleen Conway, who is largely responsible for the mess at the Fogg, aren't returning The Crimson's phone calls.

What's going on here? Local 254, like a lot of unions, is concerned about declining membership. Unions are dependent on big corporations like Harvard to keep union members' jobs, and, increasingly, they are willing to trade away employees' rights in order to keep the number of jobs up. Many unions feel they must make these kinds of trade-offs to survive.

Timothy R. Manning, the University's directorof labor relations, says these are union issues.He says he can't do much more than keep tabs onwhat's going on and keep talking to Local 254.

Manning strains credulity, though, when he sayshe "knows nothing" about employees like Pedro whoare working long hours with no overtime pay. Thelabor relations director is a smart man who rarelymisses a trick. And if he didn't know aboutsomething, it's likely that Conway would tell him.Several sources insist the Harvard labor relationsofficial and the 254 business agent are close.

254's is a cynical strategy which plays on thevulnerabilities of University employees. Many ofHarvard's cleaners, including both those who arein-house and those who work for private companies,are new to the country and speak little English.

Pedro understands that the union is screwinghim, but he also realizes that there is no one towhom he can complain.

He's making a living at least, and he knowswhat happens when workers on this campus arefoolish enough to speak the truth

Timothy R. Manning, the University's directorof labor relations, says these are union issues.He says he can't do much more than keep tabs onwhat's going on and keep talking to Local 254.

Manning strains credulity, though, when he sayshe "knows nothing" about employees like Pedro whoare working long hours with no overtime pay. Thelabor relations director is a smart man who rarelymisses a trick. And if he didn't know aboutsomething, it's likely that Conway would tell him.Several sources insist the Harvard labor relationsofficial and the 254 business agent are close.

254's is a cynical strategy which plays on thevulnerabilities of University employees. Many ofHarvard's cleaners, including both those who arein-house and those who work for private companies,are new to the country and speak little English.

Pedro understands that the union is screwinghim, but he also realizes that there is no one towhom he can complain.

He's making a living at least, and he knowswhat happens when workers on this campus arefoolish enough to speak the truth