The Research, Development and Technical Employees’ Union (R.D.T.E.U.) is an independent union and was originally organized and known as the M.I.T. Employees’ Union. They were certified (#CR 964) as collective bargaining agents on July 17, 1946, by the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission following an election held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) by the Commission on July 12, 1946. This election was brought about on the strength of a petition signed by 156 employees of M.I.T.

​

The reasons for organizing at this particular time were brought forth by a group of academic and technical employees. At M.I.T. during World War II, the academic and technical employees were underpaid and their wages had been frozen, but the radar group who were under government contracts were getting high wages – plus increases. This imbalance was brought to the attention of the President of M.I.T. but he turned the problem over to a female personnel director who in turn held the line on wage increases. Besides this frustration, also at this time the A.F.L. was trying to organize the Building Service Groups at M.I.T. But the academic and technical employees felt they didn’t want to be aligned with this type of union so they initiated the petition to start their own independent organization.

 

The first elected officers of the Union were Frederick E. Broderick as President, Maurice Forbes as Vice-President, and Harold H. Carter as Treasurer and the first contract with M.I.T. was signed on October 25, 1946. This first contract gave a general wage increase of fifteen cents per hour ten paid holidays, vacations, sick leave, seniority, grievance procedures, military service leave, promotion and transfer rights, and a union-shop agreement whereby new employees had 30 days to become members of the Union.

 

Since these early days of the Union there has been a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision of December 18, 1954 that said M.I.T. was not exempt from the jurisdiction of the NLRB. M.I.T. had claimed that colleges were exempt because of their non-profit character. In 1955 the Lincoln Laboratory employees helped the Independent Union of Plant Protection Employees win their strike against M.I.T. as they stayed out for three days in refusing to cross picket lines. In July 1962, the R.D.T.E.U. held a general strike against M.I.T. over contract demands. After being out 23 days the Union and Management finally came to terms with the Union getting some of their demands, but less than they had hoped for. During October 1963, M.I.T. made a determined effort to test the contract language concerning layoffs as 33 men were laid off at Lincoln Laboratory. Since no consideration was given to seniority in this layoff, a grievance was filed. M.I.T. then offered most of these men different jobs but at lower pay rates. A year later as this case was to go to arbitration, M.I.T. fearing it would lose the case offered to return these men to their old rates of pay and this was accepted.

 

From those days of less than 200 union members on the campus of M.I.T. the Union has grown to over 1500 members at various organizational units of M.I.T. Included are Lincoln Laboratory of Lexington, and in Cambridge there are Instrumentation Laboratory, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Laboratory for Nuclear Science, National Magnet Laboratory, Electronic Systems Laboratory, and the Aerophysics Laboratory. On July 5, 1963, the name of the M.I.T. Employees’ Union was officially changed to the Research, Development and Technical Employees’ Union. This move was a new look to the future and was made to encourage other research organizations to possibly join this Union, especially if they preferred an experienced local independent union rather than a national or international organization.

 

The purpose of this Union is to maintain and improve the wages, hours and working conditions for all of its members, and to bargain collectively with respect to such matters with the Trustees of M.I.T. for the employees of which this Union is recognized as bargaining agent. The officers of this Union are the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary and nine Executive Board Members. These thirteen Officers act as the Negotiating Committee on all contract matters. The President has the general supervision over the business affairs of the Union, and he exercises the powers ordinarily exercised by a business agent. A recent constitutional change has made the term of office two years instead of one which was good for the Officers since it now allows them more time for the affairs of the Union and less for politics. There also has been a good labor educational trend within this Union. Both Officers and Stewards have been attending courses in: Arbitration, Labor –Management relations, Collective Bargaining, Wage Determination and Structures, Parliamentary Procedures, Labor Relations and the Law, Internal Union Affairs, and Public Speaking. This drive for a greater knowledge and understanding of union affairs would seem to point to a bright future for the Research, Development and Technical Employees’ Union.

​

 - Taken from a report regarding the history of Labor-Management Relations by Robert P. Curran, April 20, 1965.