HUCTW Holds Holyoke Center Rally

In an attempt to highlight the need for daycare, health care and more flexible working hours, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) held a rally outside of Holyoke Center yesterday with bouquets of balloons, hand-lettered signs and a man in a purple dinosaur costume.

Roughly 120 people, most of them union members, marched in a large circle around the plaza next to Au Bon Pain between noon and 12:30 p.m. yesterday. Among them were a dozen children of union members, carrying signs reading "Another Union baby for day care" and "My mom needs child care." At the center of the circle was a man dressed as Barney, the popular purple cartoon character, and Donene Williams, the president of HUCTW. Barney clutched balloons while Williams held a megaphone.

Led by Williams, the crowd sang, "I love you, you love me, we're a union family. We need child care and health care to make the pieces fit. We love family benefits!" After another verse, altered to reflect the union's desire for more flexible hours, Williams jokingly suggested: "We should keep this up until the University settles."

"In these negotiations we're focusing a lot on family issues, health care and flexible hours," Williams said. "This is to show the University's negotiating team that we care a lot about these issues and that we're serious."

HUCTW, the University's largest union, is currently renegotiating its three-year contract with the University. The issue of benefits appears to be an early sticking point, as evidenced by the release of an open letter earlier this week charging that the University's benefit's package would" hurt the most vulnerable."

Merry Touborg, Director of Communications for the Office of Human Resources, disputed such claims yesterday." The University has just acted on the recommendations of a work/family committee on which HUCTW participated fully," she said. "The University offers a wide array of services to meet family needs and has established an ongoing group in this area."

The crowd, composed mostly of union members on their lunch breaks, also included some students and members of other unions. "My involvement goes back to my undergraduate years," said Damon Silvers '86, who is now in the JD/MBA program. "The University is now trying to force reductions in health care benefits.Frankly, it's outrageous that this University,given its financial state, is trying to squeezepennies out of the people who make it function."

"What makes it even more foolish," he added,"is that in the end the University will agree tothe union's demands and a lot of energy will havebeen wasted in a pointless conflict."

Others attending the rally, like Robert V.Travers, shop steward of Local 250 of ServiceEmployees International, were there to lendsupport to a union in the middle of a toughcontract renegotiation. "We're here to support ourbrothers and sisters in other unions. They'rehaving the same problems we are. I've been herefor 33 years and I've been fighting Harvard sinceI arrived. I'm still fighting them today."

As for Barney, his motives were simpler. As thedinosaur slapped hands with a four-year-old girl,a voice emanated from inside the massive, purplefelt head. "I'm just here because I want to helpall the boys and girls whose parents work atHarvard. I'll get dressed up like this every dayif it helps the union get a contract.

"What makes it even more foolish," he added,"is that in the end the University will agree tothe union's demands and a lot of energy will havebeen wasted in a pointless conflict."

Others attending the rally, like Robert V.Travers, shop steward of Local 250 of ServiceEmployees International, were there to lendsupport to a union in the middle of a toughcontract renegotiation. "We're here to support ourbrothers and sisters in other unions. They'rehaving the same problems we are. I've been herefor 33 years and I've been fighting Harvard sinceI arrived. I'm still fighting them today."

As for Barney, his motives were simpler. As thedinosaur slapped hands with a four-year-old girl,a voice emanated from inside the massive, purplefelt head. "I'm just here because I want to helpall the boys and girls whose parents work atHarvard. I'll get dressed up like this every dayif it helps the union get a contract.