HBS Professor Subpoenaed

Robinson Professor of Business Administration James I. Cash was issued a subpoena through his attorney to testify before the Waltham, Mass. District Court this Thursday.

Cash, a member of the Board of the Knight-Ridder Corporation, has been called to testify on a strike involving two Detroit newspapers, which are Knight-Ridder subsidiaries, according to Jeff Feuer, the Cambridge lawyer who is representing the labor union.

In an attempt to speed resolution of the strike, workers have been trying to contact members of the Knight-Ridder board. In February, several union members were arrested on the property of board member Thomas Phillips, former CEO of the Raytheon Corporation and resident of Weston, Mass.

Feuer said he thinks the professor should speak out on the issue.

"We think that people on the Board of Directors have some responsibility to think of the conditions of the workers rather than just making a profit," he said.

Feuer said that by testifying, Cash is fulfilling his responsibility to Knight-Ridder employees which, according to Feuer, he has not done in the past.

"Professor Cash refuses to meet with these workers, refuses to talk to them and essentially says they are bothering him," he said. "He understands job security--he is a tenured professor--yet he refuses to extend these same privileges to these striking workers."

Robert Ourlian, who acted as a liaison to the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM)--a Harvard undergraduate group which helped the Detroit workers--said he thinks that Cash has neglected his responsibility by not talking to union members.

"I don't know what Professor Cash's problem is," said Ourlian, who is a member of the newspaper guild and writer for the Detroit News. "That's what universities are there for, to discuss things."

Both Cash and his lawyer, Thomas E. Pisch, of the Boston Firm Conn, Kavanaugh, Rosenthal, Pisch and Ford, did not respond to numerous requests for comment over a period of several days.

PSLM members were asked to serve a subpoena to Cash on Harvard Business School property after workers were turned away on April 11, when they tried to serve the subpoena to Cash. Cash reportedly refused to speak or accept the subpoena from the students.

"[Cash] should come to Detroit where everyone is discussing this," Ourlian said. "If he is comfortable with [Knight-Ridder's] policies, he should come out and say that."

According to Feuer, union members have been locked out of their jobs since February. At that time the workers made an unconditional offer to return to work.

Carol Webber, a public relations representative for Knight-Ridder indicated in a phone conversation that the workers' offer was not "unconditional."

"Sure, it was unconditional, if unconditional means that all of us have to be offered the same jobs, with better pay," said Webber.