Management’s perspective on our history is provided by the Harvard Committee on Employment and Contracting Policies in the “Findings of Fact: Uniformed Security Guards, Museum Guards, and Parking Attendants” section of its Final Report: Lower-Paid Workers at Harvard University 36–40 (2001), http://www.atwork.harvard.edu/serviceworkers/pdf/hcecp_final_report_12_01.pdf.
By 1996 the uniformed guards were dissatisfied with their representation by SEIU Local 254, and they then formed the HUSPMGU and successfully petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to withdraw from the SEIU. Negotiations for a first contract between the HUSPMGU and Harvard were heated (according to both sides) and lasted several years with no contract approved until July 1999. The agreement froze the nominal wages of existing uniformed security guards and included some reductions in benefits (such as paid time off). . . .
The number of directly-hired, unionized members of the guards service peaked in the late 1980s with 122 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff members, but has fallen to under 20 FTEs today. The University has announced it does not believe it can make the guards a viable financial Unit. . . .
Museum guards are hired separately by the University Art Museums Department of Safety and Security. Parking attendants are hired by University Operations Services and work at the University’s parking lots. . . .
In contrast to Harvard’s uniformed guards, there has been no reduction in in-house work for these museum and parking workers. The number of museum guards has risen in recent years. And while the number of parking attendants has fallen, the fraction working full-time has risen sharply. . . .
Wages: . . .
Still the wages of Harvard’s in-house uniform guards have failed to keep up with the Boston area cost of living since 1994. This is because the nominal pay for existing guards has essentially been frozen since the mid-1990s.
Summary: . . .
Over the past decade, Harvard has moved most of its security work from an in-house guards unit to outside contractors. In spite of the refusal of the directly-employed guards to accept the pay cuts embodied in the 1996 SEIU Local agreement with Harvard, they have effectively faced a nominal wage freeze and experienced reductions in pay that were comparable to those of Harvard-employed custodians.
Information on wage rates and benefits for custodial, dining, and security service employees is presented at pp. 76–85 & 104. |
