Columbia Workers May Strike Again

Clerical workers at Columbia are threatening to hold their second strike in three years if demands for pay equity and child care aren't met when their contract expires next week.

Meanwhile, food service and library workers at Brown University are threatening to walk off the job--a move that could shut down the school's dining services. At both schools, students have organized to support the unions, vowing not to cross picket lines if a strike occurs.

The Columbia University Clerical Workers Union, which has 1100 members, is planning to strike if contract disputes are not settled by October 13. Though the original contract expired on June 30, they are operating on an interim agreement that maintains old salary levels.

"We want to bridge the gap between our salaries and those of on-campus maintenance workers, we want to remedy salary inequities within our unit, and we want to resolve the inequalities between white and minority employees," said Maida Rosenstein, head of the Clerical Workers Union.

Child Care

Child care is also a point of contention. Rosenstein said "one quarter of our employees have children ages 14 and younger."

"Columbia currently subsidizes private school tuition for the children of administrators and faculty," she said. "This is a precedent and should establish a basic staff child care benefit."

Last spring, Harvard's 4000 clerical and technical workers voted to approve a union to represent them. Among the key issues was the demand for University-provided child care, which the union has charged is inadequate.

Columbia union leaders say they have the support of Columbia students. In 1985, when 700 clerical workers struck for four days, about 600 classes were held off-campus by sympathetic students and faculty who declined to cross picket lines.

Columbia officials could not be reached for comment on the negotiations.

At Brown University, members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 134 are also threatening to strike next week. Negotiations between the union and the administration are continuing.

Brown's Undergraduate Council voted "to protect the student, regardless of his or her choice in the event of a strike," according to the Brown Daily Herald. The main contract issue there focuses on health care.

If the SEIU does strike, employees of the Brown food services, plant operations, and library union will refuse to work.

At Brown, the strike would affect the dining halls and libraries. The council requested that students who choose not to eat in the University dining halls be reimbursed and that reserved reading materials be available outside of the libraries so that students do not have to cross picket lines unwillingly.

Brown officials could not be reached for comment.

Kris A. Rondeau, organizer of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) which was formally approved by Harvard workers last spring, said that "universities are getting terrible reputations as union busters."