[act-ma] THU 5/24 NO LAYOFFS PROTEST @ HARVARD COMMENCEMENT!! 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

[Geoff Carens]

Dear Friends and Fellow Workers,

In January, Harvard Library Director Helen Shenton told stunned employees
that their ranks would soon shrink, by "voluntary and involuntary" means.
The University, Cambridge's largest employer, has inflicted a harsh,
corporate-style reorganization on its libraries. Union members have been
told that they are now considered "shared services," management-speak for
contingent workers who can be treated like disposable objects. 65 library
employees, many fearing they'd be laid off, recently took a meager
early-retirement deal, but management still refuses to lift the threat to
cut even more jobs. The libraries already endured a 21% staff reduction in
'09.

Library staff have refused to accept management's attacks lying down. We've
organized a series of
pickets<http://harvardnolayoffs.blogspot.com/2012/03/video-from-march-1-action.html>
 and protests<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cav9DfmygY&list=UUpb3nRb9V0R4gdES7R96ZoQ&index=4&feature=plcp>
to
put healthy pressure on the world's richest university. With our allies in
the Student Labor Action Movement <http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/slam/>
and Occupy
Harvard <http://occupyharvard.net/>, we've held management's feet to the
fire for months. The Library Forum, a new initiative of union members,
students and professional librarians, held an extremely successful
standing-room
only event <http://libraryforum.wordpress.com/> that brought press
attention and challenged management's vision of slashing jobs by cutting
services and assistance.

Please join union members at Harvard's Commencement, this Thursday 5/24/12,
in our latest effort to stand up for ourselves and our co-workers. We'll
gather, starting at 11 a.m., at Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave., half a
block from the Harvard Red Line T stop (please click
here<http://maps.yahoo.com/#tt=&q=1350+Massachusetts+Ave%2C+Cambridge%2C+MA+02138-3846&conf=1&start=1&lat=42.373039&lon=-71.118179&zoom=17&mvt=m&trf=0>
for
a map). We'll be demonstrating and leafleting attendees until 2 p.m. A
flyer announcing the action is attached. For Facebook users, the event is
here<http://www.facebook.com/events/242111025894172/246465688792039/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity>
.

In Solidarity,

Geoff Carens, Union Rep, Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers
http://harvardnolayoffs.blogspot.com/
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