Presses CUNY for Deal: PSC: Major Wage Issues Still Exist

Presses CUNY for Deal
PSC: Major Wage Issues Still Exist

By HOWARD MEGDAL

The City University of New York Professors' union has identified fewer than 10 issues that stand in the way of a new contract, but the union's leader added that they were "not minor ones."

MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN: Not quite at UUP terms. "We agreed to work within the constraints imposed by the city and state, and accepted by CUNY," Professional Staff Congress President Barbara Bowen said in a March 21 phone interview. "The union is now pushing to conclude a settlement that is beneficial to our members, and that meets the members' needs."

PSC Wants UUP Deal

The current economic package proposed by the PSC calls for a one-time $800 cash payment in the first year followed by annual salary increases of 2.5, 2.75 and 3 percent, plus an $800 salary increase on the final day of the contract. Both cash payments are pro-rated for adjuncts. The PSC estimates the average value of the salary increases at 9.5 percent.

Ms. Bowen noted that the increases were "identical" to those received by the United University Professions received in an agreement with the state university system in April 2004.

The counterproposal also calls for CUNY to increase its yearly contribution to the welfare fund to $27.5 million, a 10-percent increase from the current level of $25 million.

"Additional money in the reserves - plus the recurring increase we have proposed - would mean no reduction in current prescription drug benefits," Ms. Bowen said.

Progress Made

She noted progress had been made on the issues of increased sabbatical pay and a guaranteed full year of sabbatical time for future faculty, in exchange for an extension in the service required to gain tenure, which currently takes five years. However, Ms. Bowen reported no momentum on CUNY adding resources at the Hunter College campus and Educational Opportunity Centers, along with two other unspecified equity provisions that were part of what the PSC calls the framework agreement reached last November. None of those items was included in CUNY's offer Feb. 16. That offer was almost the same as the basic wage package sought by the PSC, however, with the same pay hikes except that, instead of an $800 raise at the end of the pact, CUNY offered a $500 hike limited to tenured faculty.

CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein has disputed PSC's claims that a framework agreement was reached last November. Both the city and state need to sign off on any contract with the PSC. A CUNY spokesman did not return repeated calls for comment.

Ms. Bowen took issue once again with what she sees as CUNY's failure to move the process forward.

'Pushed At Every Stage'

"At every stage, the PSC has had to push CUNY management to treat our contract as a matter of urgency," she said. "This stage is no different. It took Chancellor Goldstein two years to put any economic offer on the table, and when an offer finally materialized, it was for a total of 1.5 percent. That was December 2004. Meanwhile, he had accepted a 40-percent raise for himself. Since then union pressure has increased CUNY's offer and defeated such concessionary demands as removal of department chairs from the bargaining unit. But we still have battles to win."

Seemingly burned by past optimistic pronouncements, Ms. Bowen declined to speculate about how soon a deal would be at hand.

"Until we have something formally, with CUNY accepting, I won't say whether we are close or not," she said. "We're doing everything in our power to get this deal done."