COLUMBIA STRUCK '1 --

Un.ion Asks a 7.5 % Raise-

Some Facilities Slowed

oy tne ployes.

Tine member -

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A strike of 500 employes of ' Columbia University for higher wages ' began yesterday and drew promises of support today, from campus maintenance per- sonnel and from some faculty/j members in the School of So-l cia1 Work.

Classroom activity on the Morningside Heights campus!!

striking workers are s of Local 1199 of the

Drug and IIospital Workers Union A.F.L.-C.I.O. whose bar- gaining unit a t the university includes such diverse employes

was not noticeably disrupted during the first day of the strike, but activity in a num-, ber of facilities, including the library, the cafeterias and the controller's office, were slowed . ..

.. as l ibra~y cataloguers, se taries, computer-center op tors and kitchen help.

A two-year contract betweem; the union and the university/ expired on June 30. Local 1199, has demanded an increase! amounting to $12 a week, or1 7.5 per cent of w e e ~ l y pay, for each year of a new contract. i This; t:he union contends, would / do no more than keep its mem-/ bers abreast of the rising cost1 of living. I

The university's. last offer: was a 5.5 per cent pay increase in the first year and 5.75 per cent for the second. 1

At an afternoon meeting yes-i terday, about half the 60-mem- ber faculty of the School of ~ o - 1 cia1 Work voted to honor the union's picket lines until an1 agreemet was reached. 1

Mitchell Ginsberg, the; school's dean and a former' New York City Human Ra sources Administrator, said the school would be open today but "we will probably be seriously1 hurt." Referring to striking 1

faculty members, he said that1 "there are other ways of speak- ing out" besides declining to teach classes and refusinn to

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discharge .. . other university re- lities.

absence of regular em-,

sponsib~ The

mainten universi Trsnsno

union that represents ance employes at the tv, Local 241 of the

- - - - ~ - - r I% Workers Union, ex- pects its members not to work today, with the exception of security guards, who are cov- ered by a no-strike clause. --

McGill's Comment Dr. William J. McGill, C

lumbia's president, contendc in a statement yesterday after- llonn that the univcrsity'~ cm- ployes "are well paid in tcnns of the jobs thcy do, receiving compensalion commensurate with that paid by other em- ployers who draw from the same labor pools."

Dr. McGill assrrled that min- imum salaries of members of T,ocal 1199 "are well in line" with those of other nonprofil organizations in the city, and that "it is not possible to ex- tend a concept of higher wages and increases in benefits" to the striking workers "at the expense of the greater number of nonunion employes of :the university"

:olumbia Reaches I Qccord With Union 1 Dn Contract for 5001 A tentative settlement was

?ached yesterday by Columbia niv~rsity and the union rep-

resenting 500 striking clerks, food handlers and other work- ers, a union spkesman said.

The settlement was reached with the aid of a Federal medi-

tor in negotiations that lasted ntil 2:30 A.M. yestcrday. The !rms of the tentative contract fill not be disclosed untjl the

members of the union ratify it. A vote on the new contract is scheduled for tomorrow.

The union, Local 1!99, the Drug and Hospital Un~on, had sought an across-the-board 7.5 per. cent wage increase over the next two years.

The workers. including non- -rofessional personnel em-

loyed in the university's com- uter center, library, control- a's office, cafeteria and the chool of Social Work, went on

strike last Monday. bout 40 clerical and cafe-

teria employes staged a 24-hnur sit-in in the rtniversity's per- sonnel offices on Friday. The

:rike has closed campus cafe- ?rias and the Graduate Schnol P Social Work, whose faculty lemhers and students voted

not to cross picket lines. The sit-ins ended when the

:sumption of negotiations, rith a Federal mediator in- Luded, was agreed on. The

sit-in ended just before a court order against the action was signed.

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