Last week’s Harvard Press carried a front-page article and an editorial about the problems DPW had in dealing with our first real snow storm of the year. We paid the price for their chronic problems hiring and retaining staff. Both the union and the DPW director identify the same cause. As the union steward put it: “We’ve lost 11 employees in the last 16 months to towns like Ayer, Groton, and Boxborough, where they pay $3 to $4 an hour more than Harvard.” The DPW director said: “I can’t even get experienced people in for an interview when they find out what we pay.”
If the two sides agree, why has there been no contract for 18 months? Why has mediation failed? Because, as the editorial noted, “Harvard’s negotiators apparently do not [agree].” This irrational penny-pinching intransigence has gone too far. It isn’t fair, given the principle of “equal pay for equal work.” This is simply capitalism at work, good old supply and demand in a market economy. When demand (for skilled plowing labor in this case) exceeds the supply available, the price (i.e., hourly wage) goes up. And, naturally, skilled plow drivers do not take equivalent jobs that pay less, even for the honor of working in Harvard.
Does the seeming resolve of our short-sighted negotiators to save a little money mask a shared secret commitment to overthrow the capitalist system? Probably not, but …
All users of our streets should press the Select Board to resolve this lingering problem equitably and soon. In one act, the town can correct an injustice, get our streets well plowed, and help to save capitalism. We owe it to our DPW, to our fellow citizens, and to post-war liberal democracy.
Billy Salter
Elm Street
