Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1940 [PAGE 693]

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690

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[January 5

as may be required to complete the tunnel at union wages, to work under union conditions and union h o u r s ; it will provide workmen's compensation insurance according to all such men all the privileges of the State workmen's compensation l a w ; and it will provide such employees all the privileges to which they may be entitled under the federal social security law. In short, the Foundation proposes to make these men its employees for the purpose of insuring that they shall be denied no substantial privileges to which they would be entitled and which they would receive if they were employed by a private contractor engaged on a similar construction job. T h e Foundation of course expects the University to reimburse it fully for the wages, insurance premiums, and social security payments made pursuant to the foregoing proposal. This I assume the University can do, because in the main, except for the social security payments, the policy of the institution is and has been to employ only union men at the regular scale of wages and hours and conditions stipulated by the union, as well as to protect its employees in conformity with the State workmen's compensation law. T h e Foundation feels justified in making this proposal as above stated in order to prevent a catastrophe which would deny the students the use of the facilities of the Illini Union Building and cost the Foundation and other interested parties several hundred thousand dollars. I see no reason why there should be objection on the part of the Board to reimburse the Foundation on account of social security payments, because, in any event, the University is obliged to make such payments to the contractor when contracts are let to private parties, inasmuch as this tax is included in the bids. Very truly yours, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION

By J A M E S C. COLVIN, Secretary

Director Havens and Judge Johnson made statements concerning a conference which they had on January 3 with representatives of the United Association of Journeymen Plumbers and Steam Fitters and a Conciliator from the State Department of Labor, requested by the latter on behalf of the union. It was at this conference that the reasons for the strike, as set forth in the above statement, were presented by representatives of the union to the University. After full discussion and consideration of all aspects of the situation as presented, the Executive Committee reaffirmed the position that the University reserves the right to do such work with its own employees as the public interest requires and that it cannot sacrifice so important a principle. In restating its position, the Committee issued the following statement to clarify the legal questions as well as considerations of public policy involved.

T h e Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois met on January 5 to consider the strike called by the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters, through its national office in Washington, on three new buildings now under construction on the campus of the University at Urbana. T h e avowed purpose of this strike, according to statements made to University officials by representatives of the Union, is to persuade the University to let a contract for the installation of piping and accessories in a tunnel which is under construction as a part of the new P o w e r Plant to a private contractor. T h e Board of Trustees of the University had previously rejected bids received on this installation because they were too high and in excess of funds available for this phase of the work. In rejecting these bids, the Board also authorized and directed its Physical Plant Department to install the piping with Union labor employed by the University.