University Negotiator for Union to Resign

Director of Labor and Employee Relations Kim A. Roberts '78, the lead University negotiator for union contracts and a staff member to the Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies, will resign from her post effective June 30.

Roberts, who served less than two years, cited personal reasons for her departure.

She said she plans to move to New York to be closer to her family.

"I found that I was not able to achieve certain personal goals that I had hoped to achieve in moving here," Roberts wrote in an e-mail message. "I came to realize that I had badly underestimated the stress of traveling back and forth to New York when family obligations require."

Roberts' resignation came as a surprise to University officials, who said they hoped she would stay longer.

"I was shocked," said Polly Price, associate vice president for human resources. "I was hoping she would be here for years."

Price said the position has historically had a high turnover rate and been a hard one to fill.

Roberts assumed her post after a nine-month search, in August 1998.

"I'm not looking forward to a long search," Price said.

Price attributed the lengthy search process and high turnover rate to the difficulty of the position. Unlike negotiators for corporations, Price said, Harvard administrators must balance the concerns of a decentralized administration.

"If you work for a corporation and you're in labor relations, it's usually pretty clear what the goals of a corporation are when you negotiate with a union," she said. "With the University, it's much less clear what the goals of the University are. In addition to negotiating with unions, you also have to negotiate with all of management [to find out] what they want their goals to be."

Roberts' resignation came at a particularly difficult time for the University. The contract of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW), the University's largest union, expires on June 30, 2001, and negotiations are set to begin within the next few months.

"It's not great timing at all," Price said.

Bill Jaeger, director of HUCTW, called Roberts' announcement "a bit of a surprise."

"It's not as a setback, but it does change the landscape," he said.

Jaeger praised Roberts as "skilled and hardworking," but said above all the union's relationship with her was a new one.

He said the union would prefer to work with an administrator on a more long-term basis.

"It creates a little bit of instability in the union management framework when these jobs are turning over on a regular basis," he said. "We would prefer more stability and to be able to settle in. It would be more productive if we were able to get know somebody as an administrator."

But Roberts said she was ready to resign in order to better balance her personal and family commitments, and felt the timing was right.

"I believe that the individual(s) who will have to administer those contracts after 2001 should be the person(s) who negotiate them," she wrote. "Consequently, it made no sense for me to negotiate and then leave."

Roberts' announcement came one month after the ad hoc committee-- convened in April 1999 to study the University's contingent workforce--released its final report.

Members called the process long and tiring, but Roberts said her duties "exciting" and said the extra work prolonged, rather than shortened, her time at Harvard.

"I felt an obligation to stay and help see the initial stage of the work through," she said. "Working with that committee was an intellectually stimulating and rewarding experience...[and] resulted in a profoundly important and progressive set of recommendations."

In addition to her work with the ad hoc committee, Roberts faced an additional challenge that her predecessors did not--labor activism by students.

The Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) targeted Roberts on several occasions, twice invading her office to agitate for a living wage of at least $10.25 per hour for all Harvard employees.

While Roberts had previously called the interruptions "disruptive," she said direct action by students did not affect her decision to resign. She instead expressed sympathy for their concerns.

"It was gratifying to see students in this generation care about an issue, and more specifically, care about the needs and concerns of working men and women," she said. "I recognize that some students did not, and could not have been expected to, appreciate how complex some of the issues involved are and, therefore, that answers cannot be quick and simple."

Roberts, who spent much of career working on behalf of unions, said she appreciated students' attempts to affect Harvard policy, a reflection of her own activities as an undergraduate at the College.

"The fact that this group of students brought issues to the attention of the

University is something of which they should be proud," she said. "As a Radcliffe alum who participated in my own share of rallies, sleep-ins and protests a few decades ago, it's encouraging to see social activism among members of today's student body."

James LaBua, currently deputy director of labor and employee relations, will assume Roberts' responsibilities on an interim basis.