Dumbarton Oaks Workers Organize

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Employees at Dumbarton Oaks, a Harvard research library and museum in Washington, D.C., voted earlier this month to join the Harvard Union for Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW), the Cambridge, MA-based union affiliated with AFSCME. About 45 staff members at Dumbarton Oaks, who are considered Harvard employees, made the decision to be part of HUCTW on April 1 by a vote of 62 percent with a 90 percent turnout, and Harvard agreed to recognize the union. Nearly a year ago, several Dumbarton Oaks employees approached HUCTW, but the union’s bargaining unit did not include workers outside of Massachusetts. To incorporate the D.C. employees, HUCTW and the University negotiated with a neutral arbitrator and opted to allow Dumbarton Oaks workers to unionize if they received majority support. “Dumbarton Oaks is such a unique and incredible place to work, and I just think it can only get better with the union,” said Melissa Brizer, a greenhouse specialist at Dumbarton Oaks who joined HUCTW.
- based on Mariel A. Klein's report in The Harvard Crimson