Students Rally for Guards' Wages

Amid sunbathers and students throwing frisbees in the Yard, nearly 50 students and one Faculty member gathered Friday in an emotional protest in support of Harvard's security guards union.

The event, organized by the Living Wage Campaign, began with a rally in front of University Hall, then a short march to the front door of Mass. Hall.

The protestors then taped a poster reading "Contract Now" over the door to the central administration offices. After they were informed that the poster would be ripped down eventually, the protestors removed it.

Will W. Erickson '00-'01, a campaign organizer, told the crowd in a speech that he was missing a Literature and Arts C section that would be discussing Van Gogh's "Self-Portrait to Gaugin," which hangs in the Fogg Art Museum.

Art museum guards are included in the security guards union, which is still locked in negotiations for a new contract with the University.

"I need to be here to defend the people who defend that painting," he said.

Erickson also said the issue of a security guard contract was important for community safety, citing the recent Take Back The Night march as an example that campus safety is still a problem.

"This isn't just an issue of respecting our guards, but the safety of our community," he said.

The Harvard University Security, Parking and Museum Guard Union, which was formed three years ago, has been mired in negotiations with the University since its inception.

All of Harvard's graduate schools have begun using out-sourced guards, who often are paid less. Only the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the art museums continue to use guards employed by Harvard.

And, though FAS says it has no plans to eliminate the guards at present, negotiations with the union have been dead-locked since 1995, and no new guards have been hired since 1990.

Even the recent introduction of a federal mediator has not seemed to improve the situation.

The union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board early last month alleging the University violated federal labor laws and is a "bad-faith" negotiator.

While less than 10 guards attended the rally, nearly all of them were vocal in their support for the movement.

The guards ranged from 36 years of working at Harvard to only two.

One of several guards who spoke at the rally was Danny J. Meagher a museum guard who said he had worked at Harvard for two years.

Meagher said he felt the University is betraying its humanitarian ideals and those of some its graduates, citing Naked Lunch author William S. Burroughs '36 and John F. Kennedy '40.

"We need to deal with the economy of truth, the economy of justice, not the economy of the dollar," he said. "They've turned [University ideals] into a base and hypocritical lie."

Meagher ended with a rousing call, "Let us go forward as an united front to victory!"

The next guard to speak was more emotionally subdued.

Jim C. Sullivan, who said he has served the University for 10 years as a guard, took several moments to compose himself before he thanked the students for their efforts.

"I'm grateful for the ideals you have shown today. I want you to remember this day when you come back for your fifth or tenth or twenty-fifth reunion and remember not to give them [Harvard] money," he said.

Bob Travis, who said he has worked for the University for 36 years--since the presidency of Nathan M Pusey '28--was more blunt in his criticism.

"[President Neil L. Rudenstine] is the worst president I've worked for," he said.

Steve G. McCombe, union president, gave an update of negotiations between the union and the University.

Kaarina I. Hollo '83, a Celtic Department lecturer, addressed the crowd on the broader concerns of losing human contact through sub-contracting University labor.

"We all interact with our fellow human beings. I want to know the people who clean my office," she said.

Although Hollo was the only Faculty member at the rally, she says she feels the Faculty is sympathetic to the cause.

"I think that the Faculty has a vast reservoir of latent sympathy which could be tapped," she said.

Hollo recounted how she was able to get to know the people who cleaned her office, even buying Christmas gifts for some.

Yet, over the last two years, as sub-contracted janitorial workers have revolved in and out, she says it is harder to get to know them.

"You're going to stop making the effort to try to get to know them," she said. "It's not nice have people working around you who you don't know their name."

Guard Peter Flynn, who spoke about the dangers of bringing in unqualified subcontracted security guards during the rally, said before the rally that he was befuddled by the University's actions.

"I can't understand what Harvard is doing. Nobody wants to be responsible and nobody is responsible," he said.

"Up until recently Harvard has been very responsive. They haven't bargained at all. They're hoping we'll just go away. They're hoping we'll just die," he said.