Although all of Harvard's regular, full-time employees (both union and nonunion) receive wage and benefits packages totaling more than $10 per hour, Harvard Cambridge's largest employer has been targeted in a media and political campaign that formerly concerned only government employees.

The Cambridge City Council recently set a minimum wage of $10 for city workers. Boston has adopted $8.23 as its minimum. With less than 3 percent of Harvard's approximately 13,000 regular employees in both cities making less than $10 per hour, the campaign has focused on Harvard's use of part-time "casual" workers and contractors.

While neither the Boston or Cambridge ordinance applies to Harvard, it has drawn further attention to this issue as "living wage" proponents seek to apply this ordinance to Harvard.

In public rallies that have ranged in size from 25 to 300 participants, the University has been criticized for its use of non-staff employees and urged to adopt a stringent policy against the use of "sweatshop" labor in the manufacturing of apparel bearing Harvard's name. More recently, student organizers also have attempted to link the "living wage" campaign to Harvard's ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with the Harvard University security, parking, and museum guards union.

"As an institution, Harvard is concerned about fairness and encourages its students to think about and analyze for themselves critical issues of the day," said Provost Harvey V. Fineberg in an April 8 Op-Ed in the Harvard Crimson addressing these and other labor issues. "On an open campus, all viewpoints are respected and acknowledged. When issues are raised about the University's policies or practices, they are seriously considered," he said.

To this end, the University has established an Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies that is gathering data on Harvard's non-staff work force. Also this spring, Harvard helped establish a consortium of major colleges and universities to gather information on the manufacture of licensed clothing bearing Harvard's name.

Because Harvard's relationships with its work force are relatively stable as compared to labor relations in other settings, those issues that do arise draw attention. Although thematically linked together in these spring protests, each labor situation is distinct in its relationship to the University.

'Casual' Employees and Contractors

Harvard University has a strong commitment to providing competitive wages and generous benefits to its employees. Fewer than 3 percent of the University's regular employees make less than $10 per hour. All of these employees are represented by unions and have negotiated their rates of pay through the collective bargaining process. All full-time employees in these groups receive a variety of benefits, premiums, and allowances which add 30 to 50 percent to their wages for a total compensation package close to or exceeding the "living wage" campaign's benchmark.

The "living wage" campaign has focused on Harvard's "casual" employees and contracted workers providing services to Harvard's campus. These workers receive statutory benefits (i.e., Social Security, workers' compensation, and unemployment insurance) and are hired independently by the individual Schools and departments.

"Casual" employees work on special projects and provide extra help at busy times of the year. On any given week, 1,200 to 1,500 individuals work in these short-term positions. During a random week surveyed in February, only 173 casual employees who were working more than 15 hours per week were making less than $10 per hour.

More than 180 vendors of dining, security, cleaning, and maintenance services also are contracted independently by Harvard's Schools and departments. In addition to the contractors' independent obligation to meet all state and federal requirements, many of them are signatories to their own union contracts. In addition, under the University's construction bidding process, 95 percent of Harvard's construction dollars are spent on union signatory general contractors.

President Neil L. Rudenstine's charge to the new Ad Hoc Committee on Employment policies is to gather data and make recommendations consistent with the collective bargaining process and contractual obligations toward a University policy on a "casual" and contractor work force. The group will analyze data on demographics, total compensation, and types of jobs. The committee has met four times, and will continue their work in September.

'Sweatshop' Labor

Harvard University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of California, and The Ohio State University have agreed to undertake a pilot project to gather information on the manufacture of university-licensed apparel. The universities have retained a consultant and a monitoring organization to report directly to them on conditions in factories and advise on what actions they can take to address concerns, expressed by students and others, that clothing bearing the names of universities not be manufactured in "sweatshop" conditions.

"This initiative is designed to give us accurate, firsthand information and to allow us to formulate effective and credible anti-sweatshop policies," said Allan A. Ryan Jr., university attorney in Harvard's Office of the General Counsel.

The project is expected to take one year.

The consultant for the project is Business for Social Responsibility, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that advises business on social issues. The monitoring organization is PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has extensive experience in the monitoring of clothing factories throughout the world.

"We are firm in our resolve not to tolerate sweatshops. What we need to do now is determine how we can translate this resolve into action," said Ryan.

Security Guards

Negotiations between the University and the union representing museum attendants, parking monitors, and Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) security guards began in 1997 after the security guards elected to decertify from the AFL-CIO-affiliated SEIU Local 254 to form an independent union. These negotiations are continuing as the academic year closes. The negotiations have been prolonged due to standard difficulties involved in a first-time contract, as well as by economic pressures facing the HUPD security guards operation, which has generated a deficit of more than $2 million since 1993.

The primary issue is the uncompetitive cost of the HUPD security guards operation. Outside contracted guard services are available to the Harvard Schools and departments ranging in cost from $12 to $18 per hour. HUPD security guards currently cost the University $24.50 per hour to operate.

The University's goal in these negotiations is to avoid extreme measures typical in the private sector, such as wage reductions and involuntary layoffs, while controlling the growing operational deficit. The University instead has proposed wage increases for employees at the lower end of the wage range, preserving present rates for employees at the high end of the wage scale (55 of the 57 HUPD guards currently make close to $12 per hour), and establishing starting pay rates for new employees at market levels. Paid time off would be modified to bring it into line with a number of other unions at Harvard. Other benefits, such as pension, medical, dental, etc., would remain intact.

Twenty-seven months after offering a contract proposal, Harvard received the first counter proposal on wages from the union. The union has since agreed to a University request for a federal mediator and two meetings have taken place under the auspices of the mediator since April.