Submitted by: Nancy Burns

In his Feb. 23 opinion piece [in the Daily Princetonian], Richard Spies cites recently negotiated contracts as evidence that the unions on campus have agreed with the University's performance-based compensation approach. As someone who served on the negotiating team of the Princeton University Library Assistants union during PULA's last two contract negotiations (in 1996 and 1998), I'd like to offer a different perspective.

When the administration decided several years ago to review and update its compensation policies, the unions were never included in the discussion. Only after the decision to move to "pay for performance" was final were the unions informed. From that point on, through the 1998 negotiations, the PULA leadership clearly voiced at every opportunity our many serious concerns about the proposed new system. However, negotiations between a union representing fewer than 200 support staff and an institution as powerful as Princeton University are fairly lopsided. In the end, to get us to swallow a partial merit system, the University offered us a little extra money to go with it. Many of our lower-paid workers understandably don't have the luxury to refuse an extra two percent on principle, so the contract was ratified--though only by a minuscule margin of five votes.

Furthermore, what was ratified was a half-and-half package that combined an across-the-board raise with a performance-based raise. A 1998 survey of our members showed only 4% in favor of a purely performance-based compensation system, while 91% wanted to see cost-of-living raises for all first. The PULA negotiating team saw the across-the-board part of the wage offer as satisfying somewhat our members' need for a cost-of-living adjustment.

Officially, the University has refused to consider cost of living as a basis for compensation. This is a longstanding and unresolved difference between labor and management that will no doubt continue to be a topic in future negotiations. I'm extremely grateful to WROC for expressing support for the Union position on this issue. Perhaps they can help the University hear what we're really saying.