Word: stefanie
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...shift in the Harvard Cooks' attitude first became apparent in December, when Sherman L. Holcombe, the newly-elected shop steward at Radcliffe's dining halls, submitted a list of grievances about Harvard and Stefani to the Personnel Office. Holcombe, a 45-year-old former truck driver, complained that Harvard was not listing fully its work reflied its and joy openings, and that the union was overcharging workers on their dues. He also asked that Harvard find year-round dining room employment for union members, rather than giving them different jobs during the summer...
...Holcombe was very nasty to me," Stefani says. "In fact, I wrote him a letter. You need a lot of education, I says. When a person is ignorant they say many things they don't understand...
Holcombe has mixed feelings about Stefani. At one point in a recent interview he said he is "dissatisfied with Stefani," but a little later on he said, "Stefani has done what I asked: I presented him with grievances. He answered and has given me good advice to being a shop steward at Harvard." Holcombe now insists his gripes are with Harvard, not Stefani, but he says it is his "dream" to be in on the negotiations this spring...
...part, Stefani sees the negotiations as basically his show. "The trouble is with the workers," he says. "They want to come in and ask up here"--he holds his hand far above his head--"and I try to get 'em down to here"--he moves his hand to eye level. "Then we sit down and bargain and bargain until the business agent decides we pushed them as far as we can push them. We don't really need a negotiating committee [of Harvard workers], but we want to show them how hard it is to get things from the employers...
Sherman Holcombe says he has one here--Alan Balsam, a 23-year-old, politically radical Brandeis alumnus who is shop steward of the College dining halls. Balsam, an intense man who wears rimless glasses, is a curiously complementary figure to Stefani. He got a job in the Brandeis dining halls after his graduation and organized the workers there into the Cooks and Pastry Cooks, leaving shortly thereafter for a higher-paying job here. He works in Winthrop House dining hall and is carrying on an active, secretive organizing campaign aimed at building a strong position for the negotiations...